Perfect Kill

Perfect Kill by Helen Fields

Published by Avon Books

February 2020

He had never heard himself scream before. It was terrifying.

Alone, trapped in the darkness and with no way out, Bart Campbell knows that his chances of being found alive are slim.

Drugged and kidnapped, the realisation soon dawns that he’s been locked inside a shipping container far from his Edinburgh home. But what Bart doesn’t yet know is that he’s now heading for France where his unspeakable fate is already sealed…

This is the sixth outing for DI Callanch, currently based in France through the efforts of his on/off love interest DCI Ava Turner to create some space between them.  However he soon appears back on the scene when a young Scottish man is found with all of his vital organs missing across the Channel, and you know it will take the combined skills of these two detectives to begin to catch a killer or killers.

The story begins with student Bart Campbell waking up in the dark, chained up and frightened for his life.  He doesn't remember much after leaving the restaurant where he works but it soon turns out he is locked in a shipping container bound across the Channel to France.  There he meets others who have also been transported in shipping containers but what fate awaits them is anyone's guess.

Meanwhile back in Edinburgh foreign women are being sold into prostitution, and much worse, to the highest bidder.  Helen Fields really doesn't leave anything to the imagination here so be prepared for some stomach churning scenes that truly demonstrate just how terrible the human race can be.  The book flits between organ harvesting and people trafficking so there really is no respite here and with Ava and Luc trying to keep their feelings for each other under control there is no time to lose.

Of course the book concludes with an ending that will make fans of the series desperate to read what will hopefully be the next book in the series!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

The Liar's Daughter

The Liar's Daughter by Claire Allan

Published by Avon Books

February 2020

No one deserves to be taken before their time. Do they?

Joe McKee – pillar of the Derry community – is dead. As arrangements are made for the traditional Irish wake, friends and family are left reeling at how cancer could have taken this much-loved man so soon.

But grief is the last thing that Joe’s daughter Ciara and step-daughter Heidi feel. For they knew the real Joe – the man who was supposed to protect them and did anything but.

As the mourners gather, the police do too, with doubt being cast over whether Joe’s death was due to natural causes. Because the lies that Joe told won’t be taken to the grave after all – and the truth gives his daughters the best possible motive for killing him…

The Liar's Daughter starts with a dying man.  Joe McKee hasn't been given long to live from his cancer diagnosis by doctors and is taken home to be cared for, rather unwillingly by his step-daughter Heidi.  From the very beginning though, you can tell that there isn't much love lost between the two of them, though it's clear from what everyone else thinks that he is a 'good man' who has spent his life raising Heidi as his own.  As the book progresses we meet Ciara, Joe's daughter from his first marriage, the one he left to begin a new relationship with Heidi's mum.  There is definitely no love lost between the two women though and even when faced with Joe's imminent demise, the two cannot forge a bond.

With everyone in the house looking after Joe in his final hours, it isn't long until he passes away and the family can start to move on; that is until the body is examined post-mortem and it turns out that Joe didn't die of natural causes after all.  Suddenly everyone is a suspect: his cold and seemingly unloving step-daughter Heidi, his own daughter Ciara, who has never forgiven him for abandoning her as a teenager, Heidi's husband Alex who is learning more about his wife's childhood the longer he is in her family home and Joe's sister Kathleen who has come all the way over from England to be with him during his last days.  Which of these, if any of them, would have killed this sick man who only had a short amount of time left to live, and more importantly, why?

Finger soon start being pointed with Ciara blaming Heidi and threatening to go to the police to tell them what she thinks is the truth.  Suddenly both women are having to face truths both of them put to one side over a decade ago and it might be that they aren't the only ones with secrets to protect.

This is an interesting book in examining family relationships though it does contain aspects that may trigger some readers.  An interesting twist at the end that I didn't see coming!

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Little Boy Lost

Little Boy Lost by J.P.Carter

Published by Avon

January 2020

Innocence is no protection against evil…

One early October afternoon, ten-year-old Jacob Rossi begins the short walk home from school. But he never makes it.

Days later, DCI Anna Tate is called to the scene of a burning building, where an awful discovery has been made. A body has been found, and the label in his school blazer reads: J. Rossi.

As Anna starts digging, she soon learns that a lot of people had grudges against the boy’s father. But would any of them go so far as to take his son?

And is the boy’s abductor closer than she thinks?

This is the third book by J.P.Cater to feature DCI Anna Tate.  Anna is currently off work due to being reunited with her abducted daughter only to be recalled once the streets of London become filled with unrest and looting and a young boys body is found chained to the walls of a derelict pub.  His father has a high social media presence and the only possible leads they have to the death of Jacob are the number of hate messages that he has been receiving.  Could one of these people be responsible for his son's death?

As Anna sets to work to find the killer, she leaves her daughter in the care of her boyfriend Tom, warning him that the names and addresses of police officers have been leaked to the gangs that are taking to the streets.  While trying to get Chloe to safety, Tom is attacked by a group of youths and Chloe is left to fend for herself on the streets.  It's not a safe place to be for an adult let alone a 12 year old girl who has spent the majority of her life living abroad.  Chloe is totally alone and at the mercy of anyone who wants to take advantage.

The book has two clear narratives - that of what happens to Chloe as she desperately tries to find her mum, and secondly, of who is responsible for the death of Jacob Rossi.  The two stories merge well together and the story concludes with a twist I didn't see coming.  Not only is this a crime story though, it is a novel built around relationships which J.P.Carter tackles well.  I'm excited to see what is coming up for Anna Tate in his next book.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x

Nine Elms

Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

Published by Sphere

January 2020

Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly became a nightmare.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there's much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer's intended fifth victim . . . and his successor means to finish the job.

Robert Bryndza's latest novel is a page-turner from start to finish.  We go back to the moment that DCI Kate Marshall realises who the Nine Elms serial killer is and the book progresses from thereon in. Kate will always be intrinsically linked to the man who planned to make her his fifth victim.  Whilst he is safely locked up though, it appears that a fan has plans to bring the serial killer back to notoriety by carrying out a series of killings in a copycat fashion and the police have no idea who he is or whom his next victim could be.   Kate is asked to look into the disappearance of one of the four victims of the Nine Elms killer by her parents in the hope that as a former detective she might be able to find her body and give them some sort of closure.  With her research assistant Tristan they set themselves up as private investigators and using Kate's inside knowledge of the investigation start to question previous witnesses and discover threads that had previously been left unnoticed. 

However whilst this is going on, more young girls are being killed and the copycat killer is on his way to matching the same number of bodies as that of his idol; Kate and Tristan are running out of time because little known to her, her nemesis has plans for her that she thought were over and done with.There are some moments here where I think as a reader you have to suspend disbelief and go with the fact that this is indeed fiction but putting that to one side, this is a gripping, fast-paced narrative with lots of twists and turns throughout.  There are some fantastically gory moments and the characters are very well developed and believable.  I'm certainly looking forward to reading the next in the series.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x