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The Bonds of Blood (DI Dani Stephens #4)
The Bonds of Blood (DI Dani Stephens #4)
Rob Sinclair | 2021 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This is the fourth instalment in the DI Dani Stephens Series however, the first that I have read. For me, I don't feel I have missed out too much not having read the previous three in the series, maybe on a bit of the backstory, but nothing that ended up being detrimental to my enjoyment of The Bonds of Blood and just makes me want to go back and read more.

This is a great story - it starts pretty brutally with the murder of a husband and wife in their bed so be prepared - and one that follows DI Stephens and her team's investigation into the brutal murder which is far from straight forward.

Full of lies, deceit and secrets, this is a tricky one to try and work out who did it which makes it all the more enjoyable. It's full of great characters and is written at a good pace and I would definitely recommend to those who love a police procedural where it's not obvious who the perpetrator is until close to the end.

Thank you to Canelo and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
  
The Chestnut Man
The Chestnut Man
Søren Sveistrup | 2019 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.7 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
‘Chestnut Man, do come in’. Well, you won’t be inviting him into your home after reading this excellent but darkly disturbing book.

Given the pedigree of the author this book will receive plenty of attention so I’m not going to write a synopsis of the story. However, I will suggest that you don’t read the first chapter whilst eating your breakfast!

The various characters, big and small, are finely written with emotional depth. Soren Sveistrup clearly spent as much time thinking about the human relationships as the gory crime scenes. Although it is basically a (very high quality) police procedural it is also a deft examination of what family means in the modern world.

The mysterious identity of The Chestnut Man kept me guessing and Sveistrup provides the reader with lots of red herrings. This should be no surprise to anyone who watched Season 1 of The Killing, where you felt sure that you knew who ‘the Baddie’ was at the end of every episode only to be swiftly proven wrong. This story would make a great TV drama, I'm sure that it'll be hitting BBC4 soon.
  
A young woman is found dead on the outskirts of St Petersburg on a freezing January morning. There are no signs of injury, and heavy snowfall has buried all trace of an attacker.
Captain Natalya Ivanova's investigation quickly links the victim to the Decembrists, an anti-Putin dissident group whose acts of civil disobedience have caught the eye of the authorities. And Natalya soon realises she is not the only one interested in the case, as government security services wade in and shut down her investigation almost before it has begun.
Before long, state media are spreading smear stories about the dead woman, and Natalya suspects the authorities have something to hide. When a second rebel activist goes missing, she is forced to go undercover to expose the truth. But the stakes are higher than ever before. Not only could her pursuit of the murderer destroy her career, but her family ties to one of the victims threaten to tear her personal life apart.
A captivating, pacy thriller that plunges right into the beating heart of Putin's Russia.

Black Wolf is the second thriller in the Captain Natalya Ivanova series based in St Petersburg, Russia.
This sequel to Abson's debut thriller, Motherland, again features Captain Natalya Ivanova of St Petersburg's Serious Crimes Unit.
This is police procedural novel that is filled with drama, suspense, police and political corruption and lots of drinking.
The story has lots of twists and turns to keep you gripped.
The characters are well established and strong lead female also.
Well written story which I enjoyed.
Recommend reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers' for the ARC. This is my honest voluntary review.
  
The Blessing Way (Leaphorn & Chee, #1)
The Blessing Way (Leaphorn & Chee, #1)
Tony Hillerman | 1970 | Mystery
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
Interesting Debut
Anthropology professor Bergen McKee is going to spend the summer on the Navajo Reservation working on his book on witches in the Navajo culture. That means reconnecting with his college friend Joe Leaphorn, who is a Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant. Leaphorn is trying to track down a young man who is hiding on the reservation, and he uses taking McKee around to try to learn the man’s location. Then the young man turns up dead miles from here Leaphorn thought he was. Meanwhile, McKee finds danger he never imagined while conducting his research. Is everything connected?

I’d been interested in starting this series for a while, and I’m glad I finally did. It took a bit to get fully immersed in the book, especially since it didn’t unfold like I thought it would. McKee is more of the main character and the better developed of the two, although I did like Leaphorn and want to learn more about him. The plot also seemed a little disjointed at first, although it came into focus before too much time had passed. Once I did get invested, I was truly hooked with plenty of suspense to keep me interested. I enjoyed learning a bit more about Navajo culture. While definitely a cross between a police procedural and a thriller, it still doesn’t have much of the content I would associate with the genres. The book came out in 1970, so keep that in mind when you go to start it. I’m glad I finally started the series, and I’m looking forward to getting to know Leaphorn better as the series goes along.