RATING: VERY GOOD
SPOILERS!!!
I really enjoyed the book and got me guessing until the very end.
The murder of the family is not the only thing that has the police in turmoil. Thelittle boy's father, Hector, is also shot when he goes to pick up the dogs that Roxy left in a park with instructions to give the dogs to Hector. A girl fitting Roxy's description is seen leaving the place after the shooting, and DD and Flora discover an empty loft opposite the park where they realise Roxy has been staying.
The investigation leads DD and Flora to realise that the key to the murders is the year when Rosy and Lola stayed at Mama Del when social services intervened as their mother was not fit to look after them as she had a drinking problem. There two other children, Roberto and Anya, kept torturing and abusing them, and their only help was Mike. The only relief they had was when Roxy took Lola to a community theatre and Lola was the main actress, and Roxy and Mike worked as stage managers. Roberto abused both girls, and the relief the theatre gave them went to nothing when he and Anya decided to join the community theatre. Anya became the star there.Even when they returned home, that year ob abuse was undeletable in their minds, and Lola went off the rails, especially when Juanita moved in with Charlie, and the girls went to the school to find Roberto and Anya there. Lola joined a gang, the niñas diablas, and when Flora went to talk to them, someone shot at them.
Lola realises that Roxy has hidden in the theatre, and she goes to find her. DD, Flora and Sara talk to her in Sara's flat. DD brings up what happened at Mama Del's, and the fact that Roberto committed suicide. DD suspects that Anya may have killed the Baez family because Lola seduced the theatre director, Doug, who is in a relationship with Anya, and also because Anya suspected that Lola and the diablas killed Roberto.
The last part of the book happens at the theatre after Roxy escapes from Sarah's room, and DD and Flora find Roxy wielding a gun at Anya, and Mike is also there. There is a confrontation, and DD reveals the truth. The person who killed Roxy's family and shot Hector and the niñas diablos is Mike. His motive is Roxy; he thought that Roxy's family were not good to her, and even though Juanita was now sober, it was a question of time that she fell off the wagon, and Roxy ended up at Mama Del's, and Lola was pushing Roxy to join the gang. He also shot Hector because he thougth that he could have taken in his son and the girls when they went into custody. And he shot at the niñas diablas because he didn't want them to push Roxy to join them. Suddenly, there are shots and Mike shoots Anya and Roxy also gets hurt. And then Roxy sprays him with her can, and Mike opens his mouth to inhale the gas, and as a consequence, he dies.
The last chapter of the book shows us that DD is closing the case. Doug, the theatre director, is prosecuted for collaborating with Roberto and run a porn site. Roxy is to face charges for the death of Mike; owning a bear spray is illegal and she will need to prove that she sprayed Mike in self-defence. She is now living with Hector, and they are trying to find their peace with their loss. Anya is left scotfree as there is no evidence she was involved in the business of Doug and Roberto. And Sara has decided to start studying again. She is nervous but Flora pushes her to start living her life again.
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