Author: Anna-Lou Weatherley
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: 31st January 2018
Rating: 4 Stars
There’s a letter on the floor covered with blood next to a heart-shaped box of chocolates. The note says: ‘My beautiful darling, I’m sorry, please forgive me.’
When the body of a man is found with his wrists slashed in a London hotel room, it appears at first to be a tragic suicide. But Detective Dan Riley suspects there is more to this case than meets the eye and the pathology report confirms his worst fears – the victim was poisoned and suddenly Dan is dealing with a murder inquiry.
Still grieving the devastating loss of his girlfriend and unborn child in a car accident two years ago, Dan throws everything he has into the investigation. Then he makes a disturbing discovery, uncovering links between the victim and a woman calling herself Goldilocks on an online dating site. Is she seeking revenge or something more?
Yet just as Dan begins to piece together the clues of this complex case, the body of a woman is found in her bed with identical wounds. Dan is on the trail of a twisted serial killer – and the stakes just got higher:
The first victim was Daddy Bear. The second Mummy Bear.
Unless Dan can catch the killer, Baby Bear will be next.
When the body of a man is found with his wrists slashed in a London hotel room, it appears at first to be a tragic suicide. But Detective Dan Riley suspects there is more to this case than meets the eye and the pathology report confirms his worst fears – the victim was poisoned and suddenly Dan is dealing with a murder inquiry.
Still grieving the devastating loss of his girlfriend and unborn child in a car accident two years ago, Dan throws everything he has into the investigation. Then he makes a disturbing discovery, uncovering links between the victim and a woman calling herself Goldilocks on an online dating site. Is she seeking revenge or something more?
Yet just as Dan begins to piece together the clues of this complex case, the body of a woman is found in her bed with identical wounds. Dan is on the trail of a twisted serial killer – and the stakes just got higher:
The first victim was Daddy Bear. The second Mummy Bear.
Unless Dan can catch the killer, Baby Bear will be next.
It is always tough when an author you love decides to start writing in a different genre, do you stay with them and trust that once a good writer always a good writer, or do you not take the risk even though you do like the new genre, and move on.
Well with Anna-Lou Weatherley has switched genres and its a very good effort, there are elements of this book that I absolutely loved while other sections that just frustrated me.
I loved the first couple of chapters, I was thinking, ok its a change of genre but this has a touch of the familiar about it, in terms of style etc.. The woman in the first chapter is a bit of an enigma and you learn quite quickly that she is key to the story and we keep getting insights into her every few chapters, which is a nice touch.
In the mean time we have Detective Dan Riley, who is clearly a detective who cares about justice and getting the right result, and finding the killer. In fact he has a fabulous intuition that makes him realise things about the case a lot quicker than other cops would have done.
However as much as I was interested in the solving of the crimes, and the motivation behind them, Dan on another level completely bugged me. Yes he was grieving but there seemed to be almost continual mentions of his "perfect" dead girlfriend, and the love they had, the relationship etc, that I think I sort of tuned those bits out in the end.
I found Black Heart to be interesting, and its certainly a promising first book in the series. For section of the book I was hooked but then, I found the story went a bit flat before picking up again. It just didn't grab me quite as much as I would have liked. That being said its clearly got good writing, and I loved the villain's storyline and found that great. There were also some bad attempts at humour that did have me smiling, only because the jokes were that bad.
I would definitely be interested in the next book of the series, as I think that as this author gets into her stride as a crime writer that she will be fabulous.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Well with Anna-Lou Weatherley has switched genres and its a very good effort, there are elements of this book that I absolutely loved while other sections that just frustrated me.
I loved the first couple of chapters, I was thinking, ok its a change of genre but this has a touch of the familiar about it, in terms of style etc.. The woman in the first chapter is a bit of an enigma and you learn quite quickly that she is key to the story and we keep getting insights into her every few chapters, which is a nice touch.
In the mean time we have Detective Dan Riley, who is clearly a detective who cares about justice and getting the right result, and finding the killer. In fact he has a fabulous intuition that makes him realise things about the case a lot quicker than other cops would have done.
However as much as I was interested in the solving of the crimes, and the motivation behind them, Dan on another level completely bugged me. Yes he was grieving but there seemed to be almost continual mentions of his "perfect" dead girlfriend, and the love they had, the relationship etc, that I think I sort of tuned those bits out in the end.
I found Black Heart to be interesting, and its certainly a promising first book in the series. For section of the book I was hooked but then, I found the story went a bit flat before picking up again. It just didn't grab me quite as much as I would have liked. That being said its clearly got good writing, and I loved the villain's storyline and found that great. There were also some bad attempts at humour that did have me smiling, only because the jokes were that bad.
I would definitely be interested in the next book of the series, as I think that as this author gets into her stride as a crime writer that she will be fabulous.
Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
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