Publication Date: 25th April
Formats: Hardback & Ebook
Price: Hb £18.99/ Ebook £6.99
Publisher: Orion
I would like to say a huge thank you to Compulsive Reads (Tracy Fenton) for inviting me to take part in this wonderful book blast, this is the final (for now maybe) post for this tour and what a wild ride it has been (absolutely loved this series and getting to know the characters from the first book to this one) huge thank you also to Orion for allowing me to read and review this digital copy and the others too. I would also like to say thank you to the creative genius, Lucie Whitehouse for creating such a thrilling, engaging and a compelling detective in Robin Lyons. Is there a neat bow? Does it all come together? Or has Robyn got in too deep? Intrigued? Let’s head over to the blurb to find out more.
One murder, three families destroyed and a detective guilty of a crime of her own.
When 18 year-old Ben Renshaw is found dead in city woodland, DCI Robin Lyons is plunged into one of Birmingham’s most controversial cases.
Months earlier, Ben and his best friend gave testimony that sent a former classmate, Alistair Heywood, to prison for a vicious sexual assault. Before the trial, the boys and their families endured months of brutal witness intimidation, for which the Heywoods, a privileged and influential local family, faced no legal repercussions. Instead, they vowed revenge.
Is Ben’s murder the fulfilment of that vow, the beginning of a bloody new chapter that will go on to claim lives on all sides? Or is the truth – as the Heywoods claim – something entirely different?
To solve the case, Robin has to negotiate the city’s networks of power while walking a dangerous line: her own daughter, Lennie, has a secret that could threaten her liberty – and if it comes out, Robin’s too. Before too long, Robin comes to question whether she knows what justice is at all.
So this is the final (for now) book of this brilliant tour and I have to admit I have been hooked and compelled to read this series, following Robin through all the books has been intriguing and frustrating, frustrating in the sense that there are times where you just want to shake her for her stubborn ways in not allowing or wanting people to help or even to change. This also still looks at what happened in the last book and how it still affects the characters thoughts and feelings as well as how conflicted Robin is when it comes to her job and her family.
Lennie I find, comes into her own in these last two books especially this one. Her sense of moral outrage has been severely dampened by what she did and with her mother not wanting to talk or even think about it, she descends into depression. Which Robin does understand but also worries that Lennie in her goodness and naivety will spill out the truth, which could ruin her future and also ruin Robin’s career too. So not only is Robin having to tiptoe around morally at work but she also has to face that her brother is going to be doing time and while there is still some bad blood between them he also knows that Lennie should not put herself in his position.
But pretty soon Robin entangles herself and the team into a highly politically charged case where she will need to walk carefully rather than her usual blow all the doors open wide and see what happens. And with her feelings for Samir still complicated and interacting with his family outside of work causes even more confusion, this could turn out to be rather messy. This series is definitely building up and the cases are getting a bit more fraught and intertwined, which makes Robin having to stretch to her limits to find who killed Ben and why and also trying to make sure her family are ok and not in the headlights of both the media and police attention.
I would highly recommend this brilliant series and I do hope there’s more to come, Robin is both strong, determined and hotheaded enough to compel you to support her and yet she’s also filled with flaws and vulnerabilities that affect us all or have done.
Ratings: 4 🌟s with a large ☕️ and a large 🍰
Author’s Blurb:
Lucie Whitehouse was born in Gloucestershire in 1975, read Classics at Oxford University and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. She is the author of The House at Midnight, the TV Book Club pick The Bed I Made and Before We Met, which was a Richard & Judy Summer Book Club pick and an ITV3 Crime Thriller selection.
I hope you have enjoyed this journey into the disturbing heart of policing and the political shenanigans of having to tred lightly around certain families and come down hard or not seem to do much for others, and it makes Robin and her family wonder about justice and what is right. If you are wanting to grab a copy of this book, you can find this in Waterstones and of course on Amazon. I will leave you now to say Happy Reading and see you all soon!!!
Zoe's Book Nook 