Synopsis (from Net Galley):
From the breakthrough international bestselling author of The Girl in the Ice, a breathtaking, page-turning novel about a disgraced female detective’s fight for redemption. And survival…
Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly turned into a nightmare. Traumatized, betrayed, and publicly vilified for the shocking circumstances surrounding the cannibal murder case, Kate could only watch as her career ended in scandal.
Fifteen years after those catastrophic events, Kate is still haunted by the unquiet ghosts of her troubled past. Now a lecturer at a small coastal English university, she finally has a chance to face them. A copycat killer has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.
Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. Success promises redemption, but there’s much more on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim…and his successor means to finish the job.
Disclosure:
I received a review copy of this book from Net Galley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. They give me no money, nor do they in any way influence my thoughts – those are 100% my own for better or worse.
Edition:
Kindle e-book (Net Galley)
My Thoughts:
I like a good female-led crime story. And I have a particular weakness for stories of horrific serial killers. Nine Elms caters heartily to both of those wants.
I do take some slight umbrage with the heavy focus on Kate’s alcohol dependency because it’s come to feel almost like a given in crime novels in the last bunch of years (not necessarily for alcohol, but some kind of chemical vice), but at the same time I can’t be too mad about it because investigators with troubled pasts, especially as troubled as Kate’s, are probably fairly likely to resort to some sort of chemical dependency – at least for a time.
Aside from that one small story “issue” (bunny-eared because I feel hesitant to really call it an issue, it’s more like a mild annoyance with a common storytelling trend), I think this is a really solid start to a new series. I would definitely read more about Kate’s exploits. Although, while we’re on the subject, I find I didn’t really give two shits about Tristan, because I feel like I never really got to know him. So maybe he will warrant a bit of a deeper development in a subsequent entry?
Rating:
This is a solid first entry into a greater series. It does its job of making me want to know more about the characters. One thing that I think makes Nine Elms stand out as a first entry, however, is that it feels like a standalone. I can’t even begin to tell you how frustrating I have come to find cliff hanger endings in series. IT’S SO ANNOYING. Like, if you end your book on a real heavy, slap-me-in-the-face cliff hanger, I’m probably never going to read your work again. At least not if you get me with that mess more than once. But this one doesn’t do that at all. The story is contained, and I LOVE that.
Nine Elms *Kate Marshall #1* Robert Bryndza Thomas & Mercer General Fiction, Mystery, Thriller ISBN: 9781542005685 Published December 01, 2019 Hardcover, Paperback, Audio 400 pages
This sounds awesome!