Meet Detective Sophie Allen. She’s an expert on murder and violent crime. Her brilliant mind works tirelessly to put the most vicious criminals behind bars, but conceals dark secrets from her own past.
‘Hello? Is that the police? I think I’m being stalked . . .’
Two weeks later, Linzi Brightman’s body is pulled from Christchurch Harbour. Killed by a vicious blow to the head — and left to drown. At first glance, Linzi’s life is spotless. A respected university lecturer. Popular. Outgoing. Uncomplicated.
But Sophie Allen knows better. Because someone was watching Linzi in the weeks before she died.
Witnesses remember a heated argument in a local Italian restaurant, between Linzi and a man no one can identity. No name. No trace. Just anger . . . and something darker beneath it.
Then another body surfaces. A young woman pulled from the River Avon, just a few miles away. Dead for months.
Two victims. One pattern. This wasn’t random. Someone is choosing his targets. Studying them. Waiting. And he’s not finished yet.
I try to write thoughtful, contemporary crime novels and include several plot layers in my books. The adult novels feature DCI Sophie Allen and her close-knit team of detectives. I don’t write simple whodunnits, nor violent, all-action, gun-toting thrillers.
My thoughts: This book handled a complicated subject very well, the rise of violent misogyny online and how it has spilt into the real world is not an easy one to tackle in a novel but Michael Hambling has done so with grace and without making the reader too distressed. As a woman the last thing I want is for the genuinely awful things in the world to spill into my private life via reading and although the victims are female (as they often are both on the page and in the world), there are plenty of female characters here on the side of good to balance it.
Sophie and her colleagues, especially Rae, are impacted by the murders but their response is to work hard to find the killer and those behind them, and then work out how to respond to the rise of misogynistic hate crimes as a police force and how to protect female officers (both trans and cis) from the effects of this.
It’s a really important thing and I hope mirrors what’s happening in our police forces, especially considering the things we have learnt about those who are meant to protect us in the last few years. It would be shameful if only fictional officers gave a damn.
I always enjoy this series, it tackles big themes with gentle hands, and the characters are well written and get along well, their private lives never stopping them from getting justice for the victims.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Thank you so much for being part of this adventure! x 🧡🖤
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