I was sent a copy of this book for review purposes and all thoughts are my own
My first book of the year was the latest thriller from best-selling crime writer Robert Bryndza, and to say it was intense would be a huge understatement.
The only time I get to read is on my commute and I didn’t realise how much I’d missed reading until I cracked this beauty open on the morning of my first day back at work. You know you’re onto a winner when you can completely lose yourself on a noisy school bus and dread having to get off.
Nine Elms is the first title in a new series centred on Kate Marshall, a female detective turned lecturer turned private investigator. It has you hooked from the very beginning and doesn’t let go, leaving you pining for more from your new favourite heroine. It opens with Kate, a young, promising police detective, discovering the identity of the Nine Elms serial killer moments before he intends to make her his next victim. She escapes, just, and, 15 years later, we find her adapting to a new quiet life when a copycat killer emerges, intending to finish what his predecessor started. Can Kate escape again? And put another killer behind bars?
Well, as this is the first in a new series, we know Kate’s going to escape (or do we?!), but it’s still a fun (and graphic!) ride. I love having a damaged heroine to root for, and her character arc, even just over this first book, was well-developed and carefully thought out. I love an underdog too and enjoyed the development of her (professional) relationship with her research assistant; I’m looking forward to seeing that evolve throughout the series. After reading Gone, Baby, Gone, I went back and read the rest of Dennis Lehane’s Kenzie and Gennaro books, needing the next instalment immediately after finishing another, and I can see the same thing happening with Kate and Tristan.
Now, when can I expect the next Kate Marshall thriller?