A Bad Bad Thing. Elena Forbes

Everything comes at a cost

DI Eve West is on suspension after her DS was killed during a botched raid on a house they should have been nowhere near.

She gets a lifeline from a very unexpected source, but it’s going to cost her. She has to prove a mans innocence, a man who has been in prison for 10 years.

So, an unexpected deal with an unexpected source of information, and that leads to an unlikely partnership.

Journalist Dan Cooper runs Journalists 4 Justice. He is about as close as you can get to gutter press as it comes, or so it seems when Eve first meets him.

The crime they have to investigate together is a murder, the murder of a young woman that worked amongst the horse trainers of Surrey, and what a world that takes us into.

The story is a complex, twisting plot, that ultimately leads to a breathtaking final few chapters.

I have to admit that I think this is the first Elena Forbes book I’ve read, and having looked her up that’s really surprised me. She has a long back catalogue, and every one of them are now on my to-be-read list.

In this book she struck the balance perfectly. The story is gritty enough to be a real page turner, yet it’s so realistic I would not have been surprised to read this in a newspaper, or true crime book.

The characters are perfect for the story, especially Eve. Enough remorse for the loss of her DS, enough arrogance to think she is being treated harshly, and ballsy enough to take an opportunity to work with people she would usually see as sitting on the other side of the fence.

This is the type of book that would have me sitting round the pool ignoring everybody around me on holiday. The type of book that would make long flights fly by, if this was a normal year.

If you are looking for a cracking crime thriller, this is for you, but warn the people around you they are going to be ignored for a couple of days.

Pages: 448. Publisher: Black Thorn. Out Now