Review: THE CARDIFF KILLINGS, Gaynor Torrance

• 
  This edition available from Amazon on Kindle
  
• THE CARDIFF KILLINGS a gripping murder mystery (DI Jemima Huxley Crime Thriller Book 1)
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09W33D4BJ
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Joffe Books crime thriller, mystery and suspense (March 20, 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 279 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

MEET DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JEMIMA HUXLEY IN THIS BRILLIANT NEW CRIME SERIES FULL OF STUNNING TWISTS.

Please note this book was previously published as REVENGE.

An isolated manor house. Shallow woodland graves. A troubled female detective facing the biggest case of her career.

The call comes early in the morning. David and Helen Tremaine have discovered a body buried in the grounds of their large Victorian manor house, Llys Faen Hall, just north of Cardiff.

DI Jemima Huxley and her partner, DS Dan Broadbent, race to the scene to discover that a second body has been unearthed in a shallow woodland grave. And the forensic team working the site believe this is just the start.

Jemima knows this is the biggest case of her career. But it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Struggling to get pregnant, she is a woman on the edge, a woman who self-harms just to make it through the day. And with no one reported missing, no apparent motive and no obvious suspect, the investigation is anything but straightforward.

Eight graves. Eight dead women. All with pomegranate seeds placed inside their mouths.

When Jemima makes an unexpected breakthrough, she enters a desperate race against time to prevent more women dying.

Readers of Simon McCleave, Rachel McLean, Ann Cleeves, Helen H. Durrant, Joy Ellis, Angela Marsons, L.J. Ross, J.M. Dalgliesh, Mark Edwards and Lynda La Plante will love Gaynor Torrance’s feisty and flawed protagonist DI Jemima Huxley.

My Take

This is the fairly grisly beginning to a new-to-me series set in Wales. Basically a police procedural about a serial killer. There are some not-so-new elements such as a new female detective inspector charged with setting up a new murder team, hounded by her boss, and also feeling the pressures of being unable to become pregnant.  Jemima Huxley also self harms.  

A body is found in a shallow grave on a wealthy estate. Investigators quickly realise there is more than one body, all killed in a similar way, seemingly with some ritual significance.

I will read another.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Gaynor Torrance lives near Cardiff with her husband and their rescue cat, Cleo. The area is the setting for her Detective Inspector Jemima Huxley Crime Thriller series of books. Like Gaynor, Jemima has a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Though, apart from them both having a keen interest in human behaviour, that’s where any similarity ends.

When she’s not writing or glued to her Kindle, Gaynor enjoys listening to music, playing the piano, walking, travelling, and eating far too much chocolate.

Find out more about Gaynor at: https://www.gaynortorrance.com  

DETECTIVE INSPECTOR JEMIMA HUXLEY
Book 1: THE CARDIFF KILLINGS
Book 2: THE BRIARMARSH CLOSE KILLINGS
Book 3: THE CAERPHILLY MOUNTAIN KILLINGS
Book 4: THE LEIGHTON MEADOW KILLINGS
Book 5: THE MARQUESS CLUB KILLINGS