Compelling and claustrophic, Without a doubt, Fiona Griffiths is one of crime’s most memorable heroines.”

 

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

Harry Bingham is another new writer for me and part of another three for a fiver deal from the Works. As it happens, this the one is first of a series of five cop novels, but set in Cardiff for a change.

Detective Constable Fiona (Fi) Griffiths is the lead in this one, trying hard to get over her childhood trauma and wanting to keep herself independent from her parents, which she doesn’t always manage. She is also very close and familiar with corpses. Anyway, a junky sex worker and her three-year-old daughter are found dead, and the hunt is on.

But hang on, why is a debit card belonging to a dead property developer found in the same room and the two victims? Fi becomes more frightened as the story goes on, gets into trouble with her boss and warned to stop show boating and get on with the job; but which job? The murder investigation or the embezzlement case she was working on before the murder? Fi is sure they are linked in some way. Along the way, she acquires a hand gun, which she hopes will keep her alive somehow, even if it is an illegal gun.

The story trots along nicely and is wrapped up well too. It’s an easy read in a decent font, as I’ve said before that helps me a lot. In the same sale lot, there was another of the five-title series, but the third one. I doubt that I will be reading it any time soon though. #1 is a decent enough read, it’s entertaining I suppose, apart from one little thing; Fi is more than a little anti-English! There are a few times when this becomes obvious and clearly stated. That’s is perhaps where all of us writers need to be careful in how our characters portray us, as individuals too. The other reason why I won’t be getting to the next one is that I have such a large TBR pile, that Mr Bingham is not as much of a draw as so many others are.

Next review from me is on Girl on a Train … keep an eye out for it; I have feeling there will be some ruffled feathers with this one.

 

Reviewed by:

Ron Clark

Added 20th April 2017

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Ron Clark