Gruesome Detective story, but a tad clichéd
⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Blurb:
TOO SOON TO SEE
Polished. Professional. Perfect. Dead. Respected scientist Dr Eleanor Costello is found hanging in her immaculate home: the scene the very picture of a suicide.
TOO LATE TO HIDE
DCS Frankie Sheehan is handed the case, and almost immediately spots foul play. Sheehan, a trained profiler, is seeking a murderer with a talent for death.
TOO CLOSE TO BREATHE
As Frankie strives to paint a picture of the killer, and their victim, she starts to sense they are part of a larger, darker canvas, on which the lines between the two blur.
Olivia Kiernan's debut is a bold, brilliant thriller that will keep you guessing and leave you breathless.
The Review
Firstly - the content matter of this book is pretty dark. Not something I find off putting, but worth mentioning as if you believe in trigger warnings - this book needs all of them. Murder, suicide, extreme sexual practices...so, y'know, be warned. There are some quite disturbing scenes and occasionally extremely graphic scenes.... you know it's fairly gruesome if even I think it is.
So, we start with a suicide, or at least what looks like a suicide...but then questions start to be asked and it becomes clear there's a lot more to this case than meets the eye. Our Police Detective, Frankie Sheehan is shrewd and stubborn, she refuses to let this lie. You would be forgiven for wondering if this actually was the second book in the series, rather than the debut, as Frankie's recent traumatic experience is alluded to but not properly explained until some way in. It gets a bit frustrating as you don't really understand the significance of the damage she is recovering from, to the current case they are investigating.
This is not a bad police procedural, but was definitely too long for my liking. I've read a few recently, that pootle along for a quite a while, with not a lot happening, and then all the action suddenly occurs in the last 20 pages or so. I wanted a bit more earlier on, to keep me properly hooked. Having said that, the mystery of the case itself was actually quite well crafted and I didn't work out 'who-dunnit' until the reveal, which is unusual - so 'props' for that.
I think the reason this stayed as an average read and not a brilliant one for me, is how much it relied on crime fiction clichés. Especially the age old trope where the lead Detective is damaged and trying to deal with physical and emotional trauma while investigating a new case. My friend Rob put it perfectly when he said it had the classic
"scarred hero who isn’t afraid to break a few rules to get the job done! I cringed a little when she was given only 24 hours to crack the case"
Yeah, that second one really got me too. It almost felt a bit Luther-esque in ramping up the tension. Oh no, they are going to pull out the funding for the investigation, well OK, the Superintendent will turn a blind eye just for ONE more day until putting the paperwork through.
Ultimately, for me, this was good but forgettable. It just didn't do anything new to enthuse me just that little bit more.