Review: LETHAL VENGEANCE, Robert Bryndza

• 
  This title read as a library book and on my Kindle
  
• Published by Raven Street Publishing 2024
• ISBN 978-1-914547-19-5
• 412 pages
• #8 Erika Foster series 

 Synopsis (author website)

A powerful man is found dead. Bound. Gagged. Exposed. . .

The Met wants it buried. Detective Erika Foster wants the truth.

When Detective Erika Foster arrives at the home of prominent politician Neville Lomas, she finds a scene straight out of a nightmare: the man is naked, hog-tied, and very much dead. The official cause? Natural. The case? Closed—by order of the top brass.

But two months later, when a famous casting director and a Premier League footballer are found murdered in eerily similar circumstances, Erika knows this is no coincidence. Someone is out for vengeance—and they’re just getting started.

As the body count rises, Erika’s investigation leads to a bizarre twist: CCTV footage reveals five female suspects... all with the same face. And the deeper she digs, the more she uncovers a shadowy trail leading to a high-end sex worker who knows too much—and may be the key to unraveling a scandal the Met will do anything to keep buried.

In a race against time, Erika must untangle a web of lies, secrets, and powerful enemies before the killer strikes again. But in a case where nothing is what it seems, one wrong move could be her last.

Smart, fast-paced, and packed with jaw-dropping twists, Lethal Vengeance is a crime thriller that grips from the first page to the explosive finale. Can be read as a standalone story.

My Take

A very intense read with Erika always just hanging on to the management of her case. She gradually establishes links between 4 murder victims and uncovers a killer acting out vengeance for what these people had done to her in the past.

Just a note: I began reading this in paperback until halfway through the glue binding the spine cracked and the book became loose leaf. I finished it on my Kindle. 

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

Erika Foster

• 4.6, DARK WATER - #1
• 4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER - #2
• 4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE - #3
• 4.8, LAST BREATH - #4
• 4.7, COLD BLOOD - #5
• 4.6. DEADLY SECRETS - #6

Kate Marshall

• 4.7, NINE ELMS - #1
• 4.7, SHADOW SANDS - #2 
• 4.6, DARKNESS FALLS - #3

Review: SHADOW SANDS, Robert Bryndza

• 
  this edition published in 2020 by Sphere Great Britain
  
• #2 in the Kate Marshall series
• ISBN 978-0-7515-7275-9
• 365 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The internationally bestselling author of Nine Elms and The Girl in the Ice Robert Bryndza is back with a nail-biting new Kate Marshall case, a woman with a dark secret and a powerful sense of justice.

When Kate Marshall finds the bloated body of a young man floating in the Shadow Sands reservoir, the authorities label it a tragic accident.

But the details don't add up: why was the victim there, in the middle of the night? If he was such a strong swimmer, how did he drown?

Kate is certain there is more to this case than meets the eye. As she and her research assistant Tristan Harper dig deeper, they discover a bloody trail that points towards an active serial killer hiding in plain sight. People have been silently disappearing for years, and when another woman is taken, Kate and Tristan have a matter of days to save her from meeting the same fate.  

My Take

When Tristan's date disappears just before they are due to meet, he and Kate leap to the possibility that she is the latest in a list of young women who have been snatched by a serial killer. Throughout the story we are very aware of the need to find Magdalena before she dies. From time to time the author has been telling us the story from her point of view and we know that time is running out.

The police are difficult to persuade to take action. Is Detective Inspector Henry Ko hiding something? Or is he the tool of the wealthy family who own the land that the Shadow Sands Reservoir is on? 

This is a well plotted story, a mystery to be explored, a few red herrings, interesting characters, some personal details explored about both Kate and Tristan, and an opening created for a follow-on.

Quite a bit more gritty than the cozies that I have been reading lately.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.6, DARK WATER - #1
4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER - #2
4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE - #3
4.8, LAST BREATH - #4
4.7, COLD BLOOD - #5
4.6. DEADLY SECRETS - #6
4.7, NINE ELMS - Kate Marshall #1 

Kate Marshall
   1. Nine Elms (2019)
   2. Shadow Sands (2020)
   3. Darkness Falls (2021)

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   

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  

Review: COLD BLOOD, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published 2017 by Bookouture
• ISBN 978-1-78681-149-3
• 351 pages
• #5 in the Erika Foster series
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

She fell in love with a killer, now she's one too.

The suitcase was badly rusted, and took Erika several attempts, but it yielded and sagged open as she unzipped it. Nothing could prepare her for what she would find inside....

When a battered suitcase containing the dismembered body of a young man washes up on the shore of the river Thames, Detective Erika Foster is shocked. She's worked on some terrifying cases but never seen anything like this before.

As Erika and her team set to work, she makes the link with another victim - the body of a young woman dumped in an identical suitcase two weeks ago.

Erika quickly realizes she's on the trail of a serial killer who's already made their next move. Yet just as Erika starts to make headway with the investigation, she is the victim of a brutal attack.

But nothing will stop Erika. As the body count rises, the twin daughters of her colleague Commander Marsh are abducted, and the stakes are higher than ever before. Can Erika save the lives of two innocent children before it's too late? She's running out of time and about to make a disturbing discovery...there's more than one killer.

Brilliantly gripping, Cold Blood will have you hooked from the beginning and holding your breath to the heart-stopping and shocking ending.

My Take

A young girl wants so badly to be accepted by her older boyfriend that she agrees to do whatever he asks, even to agree to covering up a killing which she witnessed.

Yet another gruesome tale from Robert Bryndza which is at the same time compelling reading, an exploration of forces that lead to murder.

The story hops between two time frames, keeping readers on their toes, and includes a period when Detective Erika Foster is rather predictably suspended for insubordination. But Erika doesn't let that stop her from continuing her investigation.

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

Review: LAST BREATH, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by Bookouture 2017
• #4 in the Erika Foster series
• ISBN 978-1-78681-145-5
• 357 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

He’s your perfect date. You’re his next victim.

When the tortured body of a young woman is found in a dumpster, her eyes swollen shut and her clothes soaked with blood, Detective Erika Foster is one of the first at the crime scene. The trouble is, this time, it’s not her case.

While she fights to secure her place on the investigation team, Erika can’t help but get involved and quickly finds a link to the unsolved murder of a woman four months earlier. Dumped in a similar location, both women have identical wounds – a fatal incision to their femoral artery.

Stalking his victims online, the killer is preying on young pretty women using a fake identity. How will Erika catch a murderer who doesn’t seem to exist?

Then another girl is abducted while waiting for a date. Erika and her team must get to her before she becomes another dead victim, and, come face to face with a terrifyingly sadistic individual.

My Take

Another bold and breathtaking entry into this gripping series - it did not disappoint.

At the end of the last story (DARK WATER) Erika Foster stormed out when a colleague was promoted above her, thus denying her the credit for solving the case. However she finds herself in an office, pen-pushing, and she realises that she needs to eat humble pie to get herself back playing an active role in Murder Investigation.

She comes across a report about the resolution of a missing persons case and realises that it could have connections to a current murder investigation. She takes her intuition to Sparks, who got the Superintendent job she felt was rightfully hers, and he agrees to let her back into the team if she toes the line.

The reader finds out quite early on who is committing the abductions/murders and the investigation gets closer, partly through careful policing, and partly through Erika's intuition. Despite her promises to the contrary, Erika remains a loose cannon, who doesn't always look before she acts.

Erika's relationships with members of her small team are further cemented and explored, so it pays to read this series from the beginning in order to get the full character development.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE #1
4.8, THE NIGHT STALKER #2
4.6, DARK WATER #3  

review: THE NIGHT STALKER, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by Sphere 2018
• ISBN 978-0-7515-7147-9
• 370 pages
• source: my local library
• #2 in the Erika Foster series

Synopsis (publisher)


In the dead of a swelteringly hot summer's night, Detective Erika Foster is called to a murder scene. The victim, a doctor, is found suffocated in bed. His wrists are bound and his eyes bulging through a clear plastic bag tied tight over his head.

A few days later, another victim is found dead, in exactly the same circumstances. As Erika and her team start digging deeper, they discover a calculated serial killer - stalking their victims before choosing the right moment to strike.

The victims are all single men, with very private lives. Why are their pasts shrouded in secrecy? And what links them to the killer?

As a heat wave descends upon London, Erika will do everything to stop the Night Stalker before the body count rises, even if it means risking her job. But the victims might not be the only ones being watched... Erika's own life could be on the line.

My take

I have to admit being hooked on this series which I discovered last year.
The crimes in it are very noir (warning) and Detective Erika Foster thinks outside the square, loyal to those she leads, antagonises those supervising her (although they recognise that she is brilliant), and likely to be sidelined by her superiors at crucial times.

But again this was one of those books that just compels you to read on.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

4.8, THE GIRL IN THE ICE  #1 
4.6, DARK WATER  #3

Review: THE GIRL IN THE ICE, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by bookoutre 2016
• ISBN 978-1-910751-77-0
• 391 pages
• #1 in the Erika Foster series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Her eyes are wide open. Her lips parted as if to speak. Her dead body frozen in the ice...She is not the only one.

When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation.

The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have the perfect life. Yet when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound, and dumped in water around London.

What dark secrets is the girl in the ice hiding?

As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika.

The last investigation Erika led went badly wrong...resulting in the death of her husband. With her career hanging by a thread, Erika must now battle her own personal demons as well as a killer more deadly than any she's faced before. But will she get to him before he strikes again?

A pause-resisting thriller packed with suspense. If you like Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott, and Karin Slaughter, discover Rob Bryndza's new series today.

My Take

This is the debut novel in what is quite a long series (see below). I read DARK WATER first and that made me determined to follow this author, and indeed I plan to read all the series.

This debut novel begins with Detective Erika Foster returning to work, so there is quite a bit of back story to catch up on.

In some ways it is typical police procedural with plenty of noir thrown in. At one stage Erika crosses her boss who is having strings pulled by some influential people, and she is taken off the case.  Erika feels an obligation to the victims she has discovered and continues her investigation unofficially, putting herself in great danger.

My rating: 4.8

I've also reviewed
4.6, DARK WATER

Detective Erika Foster
1. The Girl in the Ice (2016)
2. The Night Stalker (2016)
3. Dark Water (2016)
4. Last Breath (2017)
5. Cold Blood (2017)
6. Deadly Secrets (2018)

About the author
Robert Bryndza was born in the UK and lived in America and Canada before settling in Slovakia with his Slovak husband Ján. His debut novel The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard became an Amazon bestseller.

When he's not writing Rob is learning Slovak, trying to train two crazy dogs, or watching Grand Designs all in the hope that he'll be able to understand his mother-in-law, build his dream house, and get the dogs to listen.

Review: DARK WATER, Robert Bryndza

• this edition published by Sphere in 2016
• ISBN 978-0-7515-7148-6
• 352 pages
• #3 in the Erika Foster series
• author website

Synopsis (author website)

Beneath the water the body sank rapidly.  She would lie still and undisturbed for many years but above her on dry land, the nightmare was just beginning.

When Detective Erika Foster receives a tip off that key evidence for a major narcotics case was stashed in a disused quarry on the outskirts of London, she orders for it to be searched. From the thick sludge the drugs are recovered, but so is the skeleton of a young child.

The remains are quickly identified as seven-year-old Jessica Collins.  The missing girl who made headline news when she vanished twenty-six years ago.

As Erika tries to piece together new evidence with the old, she discovers a family harbouring secrets, a detective plagued by her failure to find Jessica, and the mysterious death of a man living by the quarry.

Is the suspect someone close to home? Someone doesn’t want this case solved. And they’ll do anything to stop Erika from finding the truth.

My Take

Twenty six years after she disappeared on her way to a friend's birthday party only a few houses away from home Jessica Collins' skeleton is discovered in a flooded quarry only a mile from her home. The quarry had been searched without success during the search for Jessica. Eventually the police charged a paedophile living nearby but he had an alibi and successfully sued the police for damages. The case remained unsolved and the detective in charge had a breakdown and took early retirement.

Detective Erika Foster determines that she will solve this case once the skeleton is identified, but is advised by her seniors that this is a poisoned chalice. It is a cold case that could really end up going nowhere. She is determined to investigate every possible avenue, going right back to the beginning.

Once she interviews what remains of Jessica's family, someone else begins to watch Erika and to make sure her investigation fails.

Some very interesting characters. Most readable.

I think I'll be looking for another in this series.

My rating: 4.6

About the author
My books have sold over 2.5 million copies, and have been translated into 28 languages. In addition to writing crime fiction, I have published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels. I am British and live in Slovakia.