Hello beautiful people! Welcome to a new review! For this review, I get into the second book in Charly Cox’s Detective Alyssa Wyatt series, The Toy Box. While I read the first book a while ago, I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to getting to the next books in the series. The Toy Box isn’t set long after the first, but in terms of strength, it held up to the first book fantastically.
Main Characters:
Detective Alyssa Wyatt – Alyssa continues to be one of my favourite parts of this series. She’s still carrying the emotional scars from everything that happened in the first book, and it shows in both her personal life and her work. I appreciated that while she does have a connection to this case, it’s distant enough that it doesn’t completely take over the investigation. She’s determined, compassionate, and still trying to put her family back together after unimaginable trauma.
Cord – Alyssa’s investigative partner continues to be a steady presence throughout the book. He balances Alyssa well, and their partnership feels natural and believable as they work through such an emotionally devastating case.
Holly – Still trying to process everything her family has endured, Holly becomes personally affected when her friend Jersey disappears. It adds another emotional layer to the story without making it feel overly convenient.
Jersey – Although much of her role revolves around her disappearance, she’s an important catalyst for the investigation and represents the very real tragedy at the heart of this story.
My Review
As mentioned before, I really enjoyed the first book in the series, All His Pretty Girls, and was hoping to enjoy The Toy Box just as much. While the book itself is filled with difficult topics and storylines, it was a really enjoyable follow-up to the first book and got your heart racing just as much. Overall, I gave the book an 8/10 rating and am now really looking forward to getting into the third book in the series.
Just a few months after the shocking events of All His Pretty Girls, Detective Alyssa Wyatt and her family are still trying to recover from the revelation that Alyssa’s long-believed-dead brother was a serial killer who nearly murdered their entire family after kidnapping her son. Before they’ve had much time to heal, Holly’s friend Jersey disappears around the same time several other young women vanish. When the mutilated body of a young girl is discovered, Alyssa and Cord are pulled into an investigation that uncovers the horrifying reality of a brutal sex trafficking operation. As the case unfolds, they race against time to find the missing girls before they become the next victims.
As mentioned, I thought this was a really strong follow-up to All His Pretty Girls. Sequels can be difficult, especially after such a huge ending in the first book, but I think Charly Cox handled it really well. Rather than pretending Alyssa and her family have magically moved on, we actually get to see the aftermath of that trauma, and honestly, I appreciated that. The emotional wounds are still fresh, and that makes everyone feel much more realistic.
I was a little hesitant when I realized Alyssa would once again have a personal connection to the case, but thankfully it never became overwhelming. It was disconnected enough that it still felt like a police investigation first, rather than another coincidence where everything somehow revolves around the detective.
The mystery itself is absolutely heartbreaking. This isn’t an easy book to read by any means. The sections involving the girls trapped in the sex trade are ugly, disturbing, and genuinely difficult to get through. But I actually respected the way Charly Cox approached those scenes, and didn’t sanitize the reality of what’s happening.
If you’re going to write about a topic as horrific as human trafficking and sexual exploitation, I honestly think you have to fully commit to showing how devastating it is. This book doesn’t use those experiences simply for shock value; it forces you to sit with the horror, the fear, and the humanity of the victims. It’s uncomfortable, but I think it should be.
What really stood out to me, though, was the emotion. Not just the pain of the victims and their families, but also the lingering pain Alyssa’s own family is still carrying. Everyone feels damaged in believable ways, and that emotional weight gives the story so much more depth than if it had simply focused on solving the crime.
The pacing was excellent, the investigation kept me invested, and I felt like every new discovery raised the stakes without becoming overly complicated. I also really liked the ending. The mystery comes together satisfyingly, questions are answered, and it feels like the investigation reached a natural conclusion without relying on an over-the-top final twist.
Overall, this was a dark, heartbreaking, and incredibly well-written crime thriller. It doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter, but it handles it with the seriousness it deserves while still delivering a compelling mystery.
I’m definitely looking forward to picking up the third book in the series.
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