Review: NINE ELMS, Robert Bryndza

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 939 KB
• Print Length: 416 pages
• Publisher: Sphere (1 November 2019)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group (AU)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07PLNY832

Synopsis  (Amazon)

A breathtaking, page-turning novel about a disgraced female detective's fight for redemption. And survival.

Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly became a nightmare.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there's much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer's intended fifth victim . . . and his successor means to finish the job.

My Take

Kate Marshall knows the Nine Elms Cannibal scenario better than most: she was, after all, the one who discovered the true identity of the killer, 14 years ago. She is also the mother of his son.

Since then Kate has left the police force and is struggling with alcoholic addiction.

Now she is a successful university lecturer and this story introduces a new investigative duo : a university lecturer (formerly a detective) and her assistant.  Kate is consulted by a pathologist who thinks he sees some similarities with a recent victim, to the original Nine Elms cases.
At the same time Kate is contacted by parents of a girl who disappeared 15 years ago, asking her to help them find out where their daughter is buried.

Both these cases present real challenges for Kate, stirring up memories she would rather not have.

Here is your chance to be in at the beginning of a new series, by a well established author.
Be warned though - some descriptions are pretty grisly.

My rating: 4.7

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
4.6, DEADLY SECRETS #6