Welcome to the start of a new series. Drawn To Murder is billed as book one in the Batterton Police series, and what a great way to start.
When the victim of a Gang Rape teams up with a woman convicted of Manslaughter it’s not surprising that vengeance is on the cards.
But this is years later, and will anybody be able to piece together the the evidence, and see that the murders that are taking place are connected.
DI Susanna David is the de facto Senior Investigating Officer until DCI Blazeley is finished with a court case he is attending.
She is a competent Officer and Blazeley is happy to let her carry on in the role whilst he takes a bit of a back seat.
With her team she soon has a lead, but whether it will be in time to stop the pair getting more revenge is largely down to luck.
When a local reporter gets wind of the implications of the first murder, and links it to a second, it looks like the Police are losing the race to identify the killer
What they don’t realise is that in there own ranks there is one person that could blow the case wide open, but he’s battling his own demons and is loath to come forward.
This is one of those books that had me hooked from the very start. J.J Sullivan has a great way of writing that makes the story flow. I’d usually put a book down at a convenient point to take a break, the problem with this book is every time it came to one I was desperate to find out what happened next, so I didn’t really put it down.
He makes the characters very believable, there is nobody with the usual “Cop-Problems” found in most Police thrillers. There are budding relationships, there are frustrations between colleagues, there is frustrations of balancing private lives with their Police work. That all makes this very realistic.
The crimes that are committed, and investigated, are compelling reading. Sullivan takes the reader right to the heart of everything, just stopping shy of making the crime scenes tasteless or tacky reading.
I can’t wait to see where this dries goes. Which of the Officers in Batterton appear in future books, and what roles they’ll play.
Yes. This is going to be a great series that I shall keep my eye on, and wait eagerly for every publication.
Publisher: Mandrill Press. Publication Date: 1st September 2021
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