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Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Bridge (Detective Louise Blackwell #6) in Books

Aug 13, 2023  
The Bridge (Detective Louise Blackwell #6)
The Bridge (Detective Louise Blackwell #6)
Matt Brolly | 2023 | Crime, Thriller
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
What a great book! Although this is number 6 in the series, I think it can be read as a standalone quite successfully.

The story starts with the discovery of a young woman's body in a shipping container. Initial thoughts are this is a tragic case of human trafficking gone wrong but when a camera is discovered and the investigation delves deeper, the case turns into something else altogether and when more people start to go missing, Detective Blackwell and her team know they are running out of time.

Written at a good pace, with fantastic characters, a great storyline full of tension, this is a great addition to the series and I must thank the author, Amazon Publishing UK, Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Bridge.
  
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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Body Count (Sophie Anderson, #1) in Books

Feb 15, 2019  
BC
Body Count (Sophie Anderson, #1)
P.D. Martin | 2007
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
After a somewhat rough and slow start, give or take the first 150 pages, BODY COUNT picked up steam with the turn of each page. Told in first-person, present tense narrative, the book introduces Australian transplant, Sophie Anderson, who now works as a profiler for the F.B.I. and is intent on catching the D.C. Slasher before he strikes too close to home.

Sophie is a sympathetic and smart protagonist, and I liked her even though she felt slightly distant to me; although her distance quite fit with her character. While many books feature headstrong females who idiotically go off half-cocked into precarious situations, I am happy to say Sophie was sensible enough that I don't remember her ever doing anything overtly stupid throughout the duration of the book. At first, I thought too much of the book was given to the romance between Sophie and Josh Marco, a fellow profiler, but luckily that trailed off and it became less of a focus. The psychic angle actually doesn't play as much into this series' first outing as I was led to believe from the synopsis, but it works in the book's favor, as it helps set up the characters and background, especially Sophie's.

Some parts of the book I thought unnecessary but they weren't anything big or too distracting to the plot as a whole. While it is easy to figure out who the serial killer is, if you've read enough mysteries, you're bound to determine who's the one; the fun is in how Sophie and the others get to that point. I did like the main motivation behind the killer and found it fresh and interesting. The passages told from the killer's perspective were especially well-done, very chilling and realistic, and they were at the end of most chapters.

Fast, fun, thrilling and full of twists and turns, BODY COUNT kept me riveted and refused to let me put the book down. Yes, it has some faults but they're minor and this book is a pretty darn good starter to the series.

Sophie Anderson series in order:
[b:Body Count|2440333|Body Count (Sophie Anderson, #1)|P.D. Martin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1215115590s/2440333.jpg|2447527]
[b:The Murderers' Club|2354961|The Murderers' Club (Sophie Anderson, #2)|P.D. Martin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1215280718s/2354961.jpg|2361686]
[b:Fan Mail|3578656|Fan Mail (Sophie Anderson, #3)|P.D. Martin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1230869678s/3578656.jpg|3620904]
[b:The Killing Hands|6980016|The Killing Hands (Sophie Anderson, #4)|P.D. Martin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1276308597s/6980016.jpg|6439761]
[b:Kiss of Death|7975977|Kiss of Death (Sophie Anderson, #5)|P.D. Martin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1280898964s/7975977.jpg|9636582]
  
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Ross (3284 KP) rated Perfect Crime in Books

Feb 19, 2019 (Updated Feb 19, 2019)  
Perfect Crime
Perfect Crime
Helen Fields | 2019 | Crime
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
More tense, gripping crime set in Edinburgh
*** Disclosure - I received a free advance copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review ***


The 5th book in the increasingly badly titled "DI Luc Callanach" series (he is hardly in this one!) follows much the same template as the other 4 books. A body is found in mysterious circumstances, here it is the body of a young man who appears to have thrown himself from the top of a tower in East Lothian. Soon thereafter, other bodies start to turn up, all looking like suicides or are people who had previously tried to commit suicide. At the same time, another body turns up, this time with a personal connection to one DI Callanach. So again we have the two investigations running in parallel. Though because of the apparent connection, the eponymous DI Callanach is taken off active duty and is largely absent for the second half of the book.
The main investigation is interesting: someone taking against those who do not value their life and have tried to end it in the past, and he decides to end it for them. However, there is a twist along the way that just did not feel right. For this murderer to suddenly become a Red Dragon-style character was somewhat at odds with the story at that point.
The lesser investigation was more interesting as there was so much evidence suggesting Callanach committed the murder, though we believed he hadn't.
As with previous books, a story written in Edinburgh (or other cities with an identity) by someone who doesn't live there has a good chance of missing the mark with the dialogue. People we are led to believe are proper sumbags do not come across as that, their phrasing is just so wrong. I had found this in the previous books, where incidental characters had no discernible voice or characteristics and were just vanilla plot devices.
Similarly, the murderer at one point uses a phrase no Scotsman has ever uttered and that took me right out of the book.
The plot is more or less faultless, with all events and motives seeming plausible, except one issue right at the end where an item of evidence was so mis-handled as to be laughable, but served the plot perfectly.
On the whole, this was a good enjoyable read, but I had guessed the identities of the murderers quite early on. Far from original and moments that just felt like clangers.
I am guessing this is almost the last we'll see of Luc Callanach, who has (rightly) been relegated to support cast from book 2, in favour of the strong, better-defined, female character.