Rachel King has already lost her marriage due to her police career, now her children are in danger as well and a lover from her past threatens the career she loves.
A killer is on the loose, leaving a trail of red herrings to distract the police. We see part of the plot from his viewpoint and learn a little about his past.
Meanwhile a young woman is convinced that she once had a twin brother but her father denies it. Is she imagining her twin or did he disappear at the same time as her mother?
Rachel must discover the links between her former lover, who happens to be a notorious criminal, and the murder case, and how the twin query features in the story.
I really enjoyed this book and had no idea of the identitiy of the killer. The loose ends were tied up nicely and there is plenty of scope for developing the police characters and their relationships in later books (I’m hoping for sequels!)
The descriptions of the violence, murder ands and post mortems are not particularly graphic. There is a good balance between the viewpoint of the murderer and that of Rachel and her colleagues.
Rachel is a good lead character and her past mistakes and difficult present make her a more believeable and relatable person so she appeals to the reader.
NEXT VICTIM by Helen H. Durrant
MEET DETECTIVE RACHEL KING IN THIS BRILLIANT NEW CRIME SERIES.
DISCOVER A BRAND NEW MYSTERY FROM #1 BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HELEN H. DURRANT THAT WILL HAVE YOU GRIPPED FROM START TO NERVE-SHREDDING FINISH.
A young man’s body is found burnt and tortured by a Manchester canal.
Detective Rachel King investigates. But she has a secret, the love of her life is a well-known villain. He has recently come back on the scene. But what does he really want?
A brutal serial killer with a taste for good-looking young blonde men.
A student who believes she has a lost brother. But even her own father doesn’t believe her. She was involved with the first victim.
As the murders continue, can Rachel keep her family together and stop the killer?
THE DETECTIVE DCI Rachel King. Thirty-nine year-old mother of two teenage daughters. Divorced from Alan. She lives in the Cheshire village of Poynton – about ten miles from central Manchester. She is good at her job, gets results but does make mistakes. One of them was getting involved with a budding villain in her teens. No one, family, friends or colleagues know anything about this.
ALSO BY HELEN H. DURRANT THE CALLADINE & BAYLISS MYSTERY SERIES Book 1: DEAD WRONG Book 2: DEAD SILENT Book 3: DEAD LIST Book 4: DEAD LOST Book 5: DEAD & BURIED Book 6: DEAD NASTY Book 7: DEAD JEALOUS
THE DCI GRECO BOOKS Book 1: DARK MURDER Book 2: DARK HOUSES Book 3: DARK TRADE
OVER 700,000 books sold of her Calladine & Bayliss and DI Greco Series
I’m one of the ‘baby boomer’ generation. I was born in Edinburgh to an English father and Scottish mother. My father was from the North West of England and this was where the family settled.
I know the area well, both the good and the bad, and so I set my books here. Sitting between two counties, Lancashire and Yorkshire, and between the city and the hills, it offers a rich mix of the industrial and the countryside and all the character therein. I always planned to write crime novels — to create the characters in my books. Since my retirement from a busy teaching job in FE, this is what I’ve done — almost to exclusion of anything else!
I have a grown-up family and five grandchildren. They see me as something of an eccentric — always on my laptop writing away. Writing is something of a second career and, despite having a bus pass, keeps me busy, young and tuned in the world as it currently is.
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