Blog Tour: Prey – Vanda Symon

On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin. The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.

With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder? But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent that someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey. But is it already too late…?

Vanda Symon is a crime writer from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the President of the New Zealand Society of Authors Te Puni Kaituhi o Aotearoa. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment, Bound and Expectant, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and Bound and Expectant have been nominated for USA Barry Awards. All five books have been digital bestsellers, and are in production for the screen. She is also the author of the standalone thriller Faceless, and lives in Dunedin with her family.

My thoughts: I did a happy dance when the lovely Anne sent over my review copy of this book, I enjoy this series so much. Sam is a fantastic character and the crimes she investigates are so well plotted and just twisty enough.

She’s just back from maternity leave, worrying about not being with her daughter, navigating breast milk pumping in the office and getting into a schedule so someone always does the pick up from childcare.

Given a very personal cold case by her awful boss, one where the witnesses are few and far between, that has been open for a long time with no answers. That’s because Sam wasn’t the one on the case. Now she is, she’s a dedicated detective, but the things she uncovers might not be what her boss wanted to hear.

Dealing with the office politics on top of everything else is a lot and if it weren’t for her colleagues, I’m not sure Sam would stick it out. The case is just interesting enough though for her not to bail and run home to snuggle up with her baby.

It’s a doozy, a murdered vicar, his family the last to see him according to the reports from the time. No one left in the church and no obvious suspects. The victim was well liked by his community and no one appeared to have a motive. But as Sam digs, that turns out not to be quite the truth.

I really enjoyed this book, I was so pleased to have more Sam Shepherd in my reading life, Vanda Symons is such a good writer. The case was clever and with some excellent twists and turns. Really good stuff.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.