Before you read any further this is a really good book so bear with me till the end.
The main protagonist in this book is DI Kate Matthews, and what a pain in the arse she is. A more infuriating person it is hard to imagine.
However; most of the problems with Kate are based on her stubborn theory that she is right, about almost everything.
Moving on from events in the past DI Matthews is now part of the Major Investigation Team in Southampton. She moved there from London following the death of a young DC, Amy Spencer, who was killed whilst undercover as Matthews Team investigated a series of murders in London.
Not only does Kate blame herself for the death of the young detective but so does the Met Police, and the move to Southampton is the only way Kate can carry on with her career. To make matters worse the case they were investigating, the death of the 3 women and Amy, is still unsolved; and Kate is the only person that is sure that all 4 deaths are connected.
At the beginning of the book Kate disobeys a direct order form her Superintendent to pull out of a high-speed chase. She doesn’t listen and ends up in hospital following a serious RTC.
The injuries lead to her having to take time off but; as soon as she hears that a body has been found in the boot of a car she tries to go back to work, only to suffer the wrath of her superiors.
Pig headed as she is she manages to convince one of her team to feed her information on the case. In her own mind she starts to see connections between the London deaths and those occurring in Southampton. Becoming target biased she starts to carry out her own investigation.
The story is told with Kate as the main character, but there is also chapters written from the dead Detectives point of view, starting about 6 months before her death and leading upto the night of her death.
Amy is another flawed character, a young officer on the new detective program she is badly affected by the sight of a body at her first murder scene. One of the victims in the series Matthews is investigating. Promising the dead woman she will do all she can to catch the killer, whilst battling her own shyness in the team, she sees Kate as a role model and starts to take risks
With both parts of the story heading for a big reveal at the end of the book I can almost guarantee nobody will see the end coming from very early in the book.
In fact, I changed my mind on who was responsible for the deaths all the way to the last couple of chapters, and there was still a twist at the end that had me surprised.
As much as I found Kate Matthews a pain in the arse, as a person, I really enjoyed her character. The story is so well written that it had me turning page after page, half in the hope that I was right and that Kate was wrong, but mainly because the plot was gripping.
I shall be looking out for the next Stephen Edgar book, and maybe even reluctantly to the return of pain-in-the-arse Kate Matthews.
Pages: 326
Publisher: Bookouture
Publishing Date: November 17th 2017.
Available to pre-order on Amazon
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