This book is one of the best I’ve ever read in crime fiction.
What makes it stand out?
This book looks deeper at the families of the victims than any other book I’ve read.
There is only a short lead up to each victim and the reader hardly gets to know them, but the detail put into the effects on the family which are left behind is mesmerising.
Joanne Griffiths has written about a murderer who she manages to keep anonymous right up until his arrest; but its only his name we don’t know.
We know everything he thinks, we know his wife and child, we know that he is an egotistical, sociopathic, wife beater.
The book follows the investigation into a series of sexual assault murders in the Aston area of Birmingham.
As each victim is murdered the Investigating team seem to get nowhere near identifying the killer.
In turn the killer starts to mock the Police through letters sent to the local media.
As in all investigations there are wrong turns, and the frustration of the Police is reflected in the main Police character DS Jim Wardell
Wardell is a transferee, too West Midlands Police, from Yorkshire via Nottingham, and is escaping a failed marriage. He is a decent man but the frustrations of the investigation are beginning to bear down on him.
The scenes in which he and his partner DC Angela Watkins attend the crimes, and then have to interview families, are written in a way that it is hard not to feel the emotions the officers go through.
The story follows the investigation as the Police openly admit that they are nowhere near catching the killer, only for him to kill again. The phrase “waiting for a lucky break” plays a part in every major investigation and it is no different in this book.
But, will that break ever come…
I highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys crime fiction, or anybody that just enjoys a well written story.
Pages: 322
Publisher: Bloodhound Books
Available on Amazon
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