Published By: No Exit Press
Pages: 256
Released On: 12/09/2024
When a police detective is found murdered, all clues point to Amma Reynolds, a young woman who lives in the town. Amma has a clear motive. She resents the police for failing to properly investigate her brother’s death, written off as an accidental drowning, but which she believes was murder.
If that wasn’t suspicious enough, she is now refusing to speak to the police.
Former detective and private investigator Erin Crane is hired by Amma’s family to try and convince her to talk and to find out what really happened on the evening of DI Mark Stormont’s murder.
As she digs deeper, Erin realises that in order to solve the case, she first needs to uncover why Amma’s brother turned up dead in a river all those years ago. Even if it means tearing her friendship with DI Lewis Jennings apart.
Because there are some secrets the Wakestead police force would rather stay buried…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and No Exit Press for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I only recently read Charlotte’s book, The Blame, and absolutely loved it. In fact, I owned it before I received this early copy of the sequel but hadn’t got round to reading it, but when I did, I flew through it. It was so good and so I was really hoping this one would live up to it, and it most certainty did.
I can always rely on a thriller to get me out of a reading slump! There is no preamble here, it is straight in with a case, police, a dead body, and a suspect.
There are some of the same characters from The Blame, but also a fair few new ones, which gives us a sense of familiarity, but with enough new things to get us excited for more.
We have Erin of course, the main detective who was in the first one, along with other recognisable police officers. Our main suspect is Amma, a lost young woman with a grudge, still grieving for her late brother. There are other characters of course, old and new, but it is these two women who carry the story along, and it was hard to decide if I thought Amma was guilty or not as I really liked her. Even if she did some morally dodgy things, her heart always seemed to be in the right place.
It is still interesting to see Erin as our main character amongst all the men. Policing and investigating is still such a male dominated field, and so to see her be the boss of her own success and whatnot, from a female reader’s perspective, it is really good to read.
Because I enjoyed The Blame so much, I was wondering if a) I wouldn’t enjoy this as much, and b) if it would be too similar, but it’s not. It’s got everything I loved about the first one but with some extras.
I read the first half before bed, and the second half straight away when I woke up as I couldn’t bear to be without it for much longer, so determined I was to find out what happened.
Because of what happened in the first book and how surprising the whodunnit turned out to be (no spoilers), I was trying to look for little clues right from the off with this one, but it still took me completely by surprise, which, in my books, makes for the perfectly written thriller.
What was interesting in both books is this unease and distrust of the police. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really hope there’s nothing as bad as what you read in books happening in real life, but there is a general distrust of police nowadays, it’s hard to ignore. Not by everyone, but you can tell through various news stories over the last few years that there is definitely this undercurrent. And it’s interesting to read that, because in most books that I’ve read, the police are the trusted ones. But how do you trust a force that may not be all they seem?
I am really hoping Charlotte makes this a long series because I am here for it. I’m loving everything about it and can’t wait to see her progress as a writer.
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