Gritty police murder mystery
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The Blurb:
A botched attempt to extort money has tragic consequences.
An embarrassing DNA match to an unsolved rape and murder twenty years before means DI Colin Strong has to use his best diplomatic tactics.
Simultaneously, journalist Bob Souter is tasked with writing about that same case to re-focus public attention. Will the newspaper’s actions help or hinder the police? Meanwhile, Strong’s team has two separate murder enquiries to run.
With their friendship under duress, will Souter and Strong be able to work together?
The Review
Thanks to Caroline Vincent (@CarolineBookbit) of Bits About Books for inviting me on the Blog Tour for TAINTED by David Evans.
Tainted is the 4th book in the Wakefield series - full disclosure, I've not had chance to read any of the first 3 books in the series, so I was new to the characters and unaware of their back stories and loyalties to each other. It was definitely one that could be read on its own, the author makes sure to explain a lot of the back referencing to previous incidents, so you don't need to read the earlier books, but there's enough references to make you wish that you had.
There are two murders on the go in this story and to begin with it’s difficult to see how they could be linked. I found it fascinating that for one of them, the reader knows how the murder took place. So it’s less of a ‘whodunnit’ and more of a detailed look at the police investigation. Police procedural dramas run the risk of becoming boring, but I was pleased that this turned out to be cleverly crafted, with quite a lot of emphasis on the characters and the relationships between them.
Tainted is a pacy read, with two genuinely interesting murder mysteries at its heart. It’s is reminiscent of TV series such as ‘A touch of Frost’ or ‘Inspector Morse’- it very much has an old-school policing vibe about it. The characters are all well written and there are likeable people to root for and suitably unpleasant rogues!
I did wish that I had read the earlier books as I think that would have helped to have more of an emotional connection with the characters and understand better the reasons behind their decisions. All of the main characters have continuing story lines from earlier in the series, some of whom have clearly had some extreme emotional turmoil and that context would have made this book have more impact.
I enjoyed seeing how the two strands slowly pulled together as it is revealed how the two murders are connected. As this happened we raced towards the final conclusion and my heart was in my mouth to see how it was going to resolve itself. There was plenty of jeopardy to keep you interested right until then end.
I suppose I had better now add the first 3 books to my 'to read' shelf!
Thank you to Caroline Vincent at Bits About Books for the invitation to participate in this blog tour & a free copy of the ebook in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
David Evans is a Scots-born writer who found his true love as well as his inspiration for his detective series, in Wakefield. Having written all his life, in 2012 he decided to go for it – successfully as the next year, in 2013, he was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award.
The Wakefield Series became an International Bestseller in June 2017 with success in Canada and Australia as well as the UK.
Early 2018 Disposal was published, the first book in the Tendring Series, a new detective series, set in north Essex in the 1970s.
Now, the first three books in the Wakefield series have been republished by Orchard View Publications with brand new covers – Orchard View Publications also publishes the fourth book in the series, TAINTED.