Indigenous cop Cass Diamond is asked to help with an unusual missing person search. Wealthy businessman Andrew Todd died in 2012 and left directions in his will to search for a child, Yasmin Munoz, who went missing from a picnic spot near Cairns in 1992.

Whilst poking around, Cass discovers that in 1990 Todd’s daughter-in-law to be went missing from a Brisbane party thrown for her engagement. At the time police believed there was no link between the two events, but Cass has a hunch. The search leads Cass to a farm on the Atherton Tablelands and she becomes the victim of a kidnapping herself along with two other women.

Missing Pieces published by Wild Dingo Press, is the second novel in a series by Caroline de Costa and was shortlisted in the 2016 Davitt Awards. Set in Queensland it is great to see a strong, shrewd and feisty Aboriginal woman as the protagonist. Many twists and turns are woven through the story and it touches on a range of themes including single motherhood, politics, race and the environment.

For readers with a social conscience who like police procedurals.