ILKLEY resident Leona Deakin will see her debut book Gone published by Penguin next month.

Leona has signed a four book deal and Gone is the first in the psychological thriller series which will introduce readers to Detective Bloom.

Four strangers are missing. Left at their last-know locations are birthday cards that read: Your gift is the game, dare to play? The police aren’t worried - it’s just game. But the families are frantic and psychologist and private detective Dr Augusta Bloom is persuaded to investigate. As she delves into the lives of the missing people, she finds something that binds them all. And that something makes them very dangerous indeed.

As more disappearances are reported and new birthday cards uncovered, Dr Bloom races to unravel the mystery and find the puppeteer. But is she playing into their hands?

The book is billed as “An addictive debut thriller with an ingenious hook that turns the missing person plot on its head - what if the missing people are the dangerous ones?”

Leona draws her inspiration for her writing from her own experiences having started her career as a psychologist with West Yorkshire Police and her successful work in psychology since. She was part of a team responsible for designing methods of selection for recruiting and promoting officers from PC to Chief Superintendent. This gave Leona an insight into the police culture that helps her to write authentic character interactions in her novels. She is now an occupational psychologist and lives with her family in Ilkley.

Gone is available on Ebook and is published in paperback on December 12 available on Audible and Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Games-Leona-Deakin-ebook