Blurb

A crime you’ll always remember. A detective you’ll never forget.
A young girl is found dead. A prostitute is murdered. And the strangest, youngest detective in the South Wales Major Crimes Unit is about to face the fiercest test of her short career.
A woman and her six-year-old daughter are killed with chilling brutality in a dingy flat. The only clue: the platinum bank card of a long-dead tycoon, found amidst the squalor.
DC Griffiths has already proved herself dedicated to the job, but there’s another side to her she is less keen to reveal. Something to do with a mysterious two-year gap in her CV, her strange inability to cry – and a disconcerting familiarity with corpses.
Fiona is desperate to put the past behind her but as more gruesome killings follow, the case leads her back into those dark places in her own mind where another dead girl is waiting to be found…
My Review
I read this book years ago–2014 I think. So I thought I’d share this one with you because if you’ve not come across this series, it’s a trilogy worth considering.
I’ve always tried to look for UK based reads, but mostly I’ve read the London-centric stuff, Robinson up t’ north, James down south. So to find good and contemporary based in South Wales, was a real joy.
Fiona Griffiths is a girl with issues (well let’s face it what good fictional detective doesn’t?), but Fi’s issues aren’t like any other I’d read before – and having suffered from something similar by way way milder, I found an instant connection to her. Then it turns out just like me she doesn’t drink caffeine either. And I know all the places that were visited in this book, which meant the good descriptions were particularly vivid for me, but as an editor I’m pretty sure they will be equally evocative for those who don’t know the area.
All the characters here are well realised, the plot thickens with every page and the team effort that is a murder enquiry comes through wonderfully well. By the end I couldn’t put the book down despite travelling in the dark and eye strain as the lights moved around the car (obviously I wasn’t driving). The thing was – I had to finish it, I had to reach the climax of both the case and the key at least to the hidden secret of Fiona’s past.
Basically this is a book that engages and keeps you reading, so it’s well worth giving it a try.