30 May 2019

Review: DEADLY SECRETS, Robert Bryndza

  • this edition published by Bookouture, 2018
  • ISBN 9-781786-814289
  • 325 pages
  • source: my local library
  • series: Erika Foster #6
Synopsis (author website)

To commit the perfect murder, you need the perfect cover.

On a cold icy morning, a mother wakes to find her daughter’s blood-soaked body frozen to the road. Who would carry out such a horrific killing on the victim’s doorstep?

Straight off her last harrowing case, Detective Erika Foster is feeling fragile but determined to lead the investigation. As she sets to work, she finds reports of assaults in the same quiet South London suburb where the woman was killed. One chilling detail links them to the murder victim – they were all attacked by a figure in black wearing a gas mask.

Erika is on the hunt for a killer with a terrifying calling card. The case gets more complicated when she uncovers a tangled web of secrets surrounding the death of the beautiful young woman.

Yet just as Erika begins to piece the clues together, she is forced to confront painful memories of her past. Erika must dig deep, stay focused and find the killer. Only this time, one of her own is in terrible danger…

My Take

Another chilling read in this series.

Not long after the resolution of her previous case, Erika Foster is on her way for Christmas lunch. She hears a radio message about a body being found not far from her house. She knows that most staff have been given holiday leave and so she decides to attend the scene herself.

The opening episode of the book is set on Christmas Eve when the victim alights from the train near her home and meets some neighbours, The wife is abusive and her husband hurries her off and the girl resumes her journey home. She has her key in the front door when she is attacked and killed in a frenzy of stabbing.

The next morning her mother, who has heard nothing during the night, discovers the body on the front step, and then Erika Foster's team begin their investigation with house to house questioning.  Every person they speak to has a different opinion of the young woman, and many of the neighbours are not complimentary. Then CCTV footage reveals the details of  the attack and the fact that someone whom they have already interviewed has not told the truth.

As the book proceeds the plot gets increasingly complex but at the same time intriguing. I thought I had the murderer picked early on, but once again I was wrong.

This author was one that I "discovered" last year and really worth the effort locating. The series has good character development and I suggest you attempt to read them in order.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE #1
4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER #2
4.6, DARK WATER #3
4.8, LAST BREATH #4
4.7, COLD BLOOD  #5  

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