This is the third book in a series featuring DI Jessie Blake and her partner, DC Dylan Logan. They get a callout on Boxing Day morning to a farmhouse in Perthshire. Inside are the bodies of 70-year-old Malcolm Angus and his wife -- both dead of a single gunshot wound. The victims were discovered by their son, Tommy, and grandson, Gordon. Both had come over to visit and to enjoy a meal after having talked to the elders earlier and then found them dead. The only lead happens to be the Angus's closest neighbor, Rachel Ferguson, and the possible motive a dispute over some land. That all sounds really flimsy until Jessie and Dylan find out about Rachel's past: it seems she was implicated in a horrific double murder when she was just 14-years-old. Rachel, then known as Alice Connor, and her older boyfriend, David Law, took hammers to her grandparents and hit them until they were dead. Rachel (Alice) spent only a short time in a young offenders place but David went to prison. Rachel insists that she is not that person any longer and wants to keep her identity secret and claims that she had nothing to do with the murder of Malcolm and Jean Angus. Of course Rachel becomes the main suspect but there's a lot more going on. The murder investigation leads them to new discoveries and revelations. NO SPOILERS.
I found the synopsis to be quite misleading after getting into the book. The main thing that bothered me, other than an intense dislike for Rachel and most of the other non-police characters, was how she could have spent so little time incarcerated for the murders she committed. Though excused due to her relative youth, it made no sense as teenagers in USA are often tried as adults in cases this heinous. Regardless, Jessie and Dylan have their work cut out for them. They make a good team but I just can't connect with them. I have read both other books in the series, but often lose track of characterization since it is the time between books and so many others read in between. I read this in a single sitting and anticipated any possible twists so there were no surprises.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review.
This is the third book of a series that I think is best read in order.
Genre - police procedural, murder investigation, Crime thriller
No comments:
Post a Comment