Tag: crime fiction

The water ripples as the girl’s body escapes the reeds and floats silently upwards. Her beautiful face—blue eyes frozen open, skin as white as snow—breaks the surface. But it’s too late, this innocent soul has taken her final breath…

When camp counselor Carolyn Sable’s body is found floating in a lake beside Eagle Ridge Summer Camp, Detective Katie Scott must dig deep to stay focused. As a child, Katie spent many happy weeks at that camp toasting marshmallows on the fire with her best friend Jenny… until the day Jenny disappeared. The loss will always haunt Katie, but Carolyn’s inconsolable family need answers.

Searching the area, the devastating discovery of two more bodies sends the case into a tailspin. Suddenly on the hunt for a serial killer, Katie’s blood turns to ice when she finds newspaper clippings about her own past cases planted near one of the bodies. Was this twisted killer banking on Katie taking the lead? And why?

Carolyn was adored by children and staff at the camp, so Katie thinks her sudden resignation is key to cracking the case. Uncovering a tragic accident involving a group of children the weeks before Carolyn left, Katie knows she’s getting close.

But when the carefully laid trap Katie sets to catch Carolyn’s killer backfires, Katie finds herself in unthinkable danger and unable to even trust her own team. Can she stay alive long enough to crack the toughest case of her career, and how many more innocent lives will be lost before she does?

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Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning and best-selling crime fiction author, as well as a consulting criminologist. Jennifer holds a bachelor degree in police forensics and a master’s degree in criminology & criminal justice. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent psychopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells.

In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists, and member of the International Thriller Writers.

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My thoughts: this was really good, as with the rest of the series, it’s action packed and the case is really compelling. Bodies found mutilated on an old campground, related to a terrible accident twenty years before.

Katie and McGaven are on the case, but in danger as the killer seems to be happy to set off explosives and start fires to stop them from finding him. Katie’s K9 Cisco is the real hero in the book though, with an action scene perfect for Hollywood. What a good boy.

There’s several suspicious characters and the trail seems cold when they find out their chief suspect is dead, but could someone be carrying out these horrific crimes on their behalf? And Katie keeps seeing the ghost of her childhood friend Jenny, abducted from the same campsite when they were children. Is her PTSD going to stop her from solving this one?

As always the writing and research is meticulous and hooks you instantly into the story, though I’m glad we don’t have summer camps in the UK, nothing good seems to happen at them. The detectives risk their lives a fair amount and the sheriff, who’s also Katie’s uncle, must have a lot of grey hair from all the worrying he does.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour

When Anna Matheson fails to collect her son from the babysitter after a works party, the police are swiftly called. Anna is a stickler for time and a good mother – she would never abandon her baby. Her disappearance is totally out of character and DI Isabel Blood and her team soon suspect foul play.

CCTV footage shows Anna was last seen at precisely 11.11pm, as she collected her coat to leave the party. But the cameras outside the venue have failed to pick up her exit from the car park – how could she have vanished in plain sight?

Rumour has it that Anna was set to make big changes in the workplace, and Isabel can’t help but think someone wanted her out of the way.

Everyone at the party is a suspect, and all the clues point to murder…

My thoughts: I like this series, I like Isabel and her team, especially Zoe, who came to the fore in this book, working as the FLO (Family Liaison Officer) and getting crucial information from the victim’s mother that helps steer the investigation in the right direction – towards a killer.

As the police gather information, and interview suspects, you’d think the killer would show themselves, give themselves away, but this one is stone cold.

There are some distractions for Isabel too – her son still hasn’t found a job or an idea of what to do, the family’s beloved dog disappears and her boss is breathing down her neck – wanting her in the office and not out investigating crimes.

The revelations keep coming about the victim – her baby’s father, her own father, she’s been well trained in keeping secrets by her mother, who has a fair few herself. But it’s time for them all to come out and allow the team to get some justice.

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

CSI Ally Dymond’s commitment to justice has cost her a place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she’s stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast.

Then the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe, and Ally’s expert skills are suddenly back in demand.

But when the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective’s theory, nobody wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison.

Time is running out to catch a killer no one is looking for – no one except Ally. What she doesn’t know is that he’s watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike.

My thoughts: I’m very familiar with North Devon as part of my family comes from there and several relatives still live there. I’ve spent many holidays down there visiting my rellies, and am weirdly familiar with supermarkets and traffic queues of the area, it’s what happens when you’re staying with residents, not in the more “Holiday” areas.

Breakneck Point is set in that world, the part tourists don’t see, the rundown estates and unlovely bits in which real people live their whole lives, not eating fish and chips washed down with a Mr Whippy for every meal.

I liked Ally, she’s very dedicated and dogged when it comes to her work, she doesn’t like people who break the rules and won’t lie to get a conviction, even if she knows the scumbag’s guilty. But that backfires on her and leaves her without a friend in the police when she spots inconsistencies and evidence they’ve overlooked that could have prevented further deaths.

But when it comes to her daughter, she’s not as focused as maybe she should be and I get that too. It can be hard, teenagers are secretive and don’t share, she and Megan have lost some of their closeness – which is normal, but the fact she’s been a little distracted means she’s even more passionate about solving this case when Megan becomes a victim.

The writing was really clever, flipping between viewpoints and tenses – you get a really disturbing insight into the mind of a violent criminal as well as the attempt to stop him. The author worked as a CSI and draws on her knowledge here, and that adds a layer of expertise and insider details to the story.

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

A drowned man. A missing teenager. A deadly secret.
When Emmy Leach discovers the body of a drug addict, wrapped in a tent and submerged in the icy waters of a Cumbrian tarn, she causes more than one problem for investigating officer DCI Jude Satterthwaite. Not only does the discovery revive his first, unsolved, case, but the case
reveals Emmy’s complicated past and opens old wounds on the personal front, regarding Jude’s relationship with his colleague and former partner, Ashleigh O’Halloran.
As Jude and his team unpick an old story, it becomes increasingly clear that Emmy is in danger.
What secrets are she and her controlling, coercive husband hiding, from the police and from each other? What connection does the dead man have with a recently-busted network of drug
dealers? And, as the net closes in on the killer, can Jude and Ashleigh solve a murder — and prevent another?
A traditional British detective novel set in Cumbria.

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Jo Allen was born in Wolverhampton and is a graduate of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and the Open University, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in geography and Earth science. She’s
been writing for pleasure and publication for as long as she can remember. After a career in economic consultancy she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young, in genres of short stories, romance and romantic suspense. She wrote online articles on travel and on her favourite academic subject, Earth science. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read — crime.
Jo lives in the English Lakes, where the DCI Satterthwaite series is set. In common with all her favourite characters, she loves football (she’s a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.

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My thoughts: this was very clever, when you find out who the body is and then as the case unfolds, there’s so much more going on than just an accident or misadventure. Family secrets will be revealed and relationships changed forever.

Jude and Ashleigh have their own complicated relationship to work out while investigating the family at the centre of this terrible crime. It adds extra layers, looking at others makes them look at themselves too. No one wants to admit to their dysfunction after all.

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

An edge-of-your seat murder mystery set in a forgotten, ocean-facing town on Vancouver Island!

A body washes up on the shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?

Was it an accident? A suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is determined to find out.

Fati arrives in Lake Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers. Everyone is hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected?

As Fati valiantly unravels the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? And can Fati stop them before they strike again?

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HS Burney writes fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating characters that keep you on your toes. A corporate executive by day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative Writing from Lafayette College. A proud Canadian immigrant, she takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new world. 

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My thoughts: I really liked Fati, the PI in this book, she’s smart and funny and never lets anything stop her including rude mayors and potentially corrupt politicians. She seems to have a sense for when she’s being lied to and spots things the police seem to miss. She might not be popular in the small town of Lake Templeton after exposing crooked goings on and catching a killer but she’s not bothered. Justice must be served, and she’s the one to do it.

The case looks pretty straightforward but Fati isn’t persuaded it’s as open and shut as the local cops would like it to be and the mire she digs the more it seems that there’s a lot going on. Clever and gripping, funny and enjoyable.

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