Publication date: 5th April 2018
Frankie Sheehan #1
Published by Dutton
336 pages
336 pages
Find the killer who likes to play dead.
TOO SOON TO SEE
Polished. Professional. Perfect. Dead. Respected scientist Dr Eleanor Costello is found hanged 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.
My Thoughts:
My first impression of this book is that it is an exceptional debut, with strong characters and well researched facts behind police procedures.
Set in Dublin, Frankie Sheehan returns to duty after being left mentally and physically scarred from her last case where 22 year old Tracy Ward was being held by an armed man. Sheehan is attacked by the knifeman herself and suffers severe injuries. Her first case back is the apparent suicide of university lecturer Eleanor Costello. Found hanging in her home, Eleanor's husband Paul has gone AWOL and his sister is convinced there is foul play involved.
A matter of days later, the girl Eleanor's sister in law accuses Paul of having an affair with is found dead in the depths of a community bonfire. Frankie is voicing her concerns about Eleanor and Amy's deaths when video footage of Amy's murder appears online. The autopsy confirms the fact that Amy was dead before being placed in the bonfire.
I really enjoyed the way the author has combined the investigative techniques of the 21st century - the use of the dark web (the murky depths of the internet), advanced IT knowledge and forensic science - together with the traditional detective's gut feeling when something doesn't quite add up. The investigation leads to one particular suspect and all eyes are fixed in that direction until Frankie and her team get the vital piece of information that points the spotlight in a completely different direction. The determination of Frankie and her close team to solve the case and get justice for all the victims not only answers the mystery of Eleanor and Amy's deaths but also ties up some loose ends on a much more personal level for Frankie.
Clever plotting and a nice amount of depth to the characters for the first in a series have left me looking forward to reading further instalments. I definitely recommend this if you enjoy a gritty police procedural.
Buy your copy here: http://amzn.eu/cFw9a6R
Olivia Kiernan is an Irish writer living in the UK and author of crime thriller, TOO CLOSE TO BREATHE. She was born and raised in County Meath, near the famed heritage town of Kells and holds an MA in Creative Writing awarded by the University of Sussex.
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