Book review: Behind Closed Doors - JJ Marsh

 

Suicide – the act of taking one’s own life.

Homicide – the act of taking someone else’s.

An unethical banker suffocates. A diamond dealer slits his wrists. A media magnate freezes in the snow. A disgraced CEO inhales exhaust fumes. Four unpopular businessmen, four apparent suicides. Until Interpol find the same DNA at each death.

Beatrice Stubbs, on her first real case since ‘the incident’, arrives in Switzerland to lead the investigation. But there’s more to Zurich than chocolate and charm. Potential suspects are everywhere, her Swiss counterpart is hostile and the secretive world of international finance seems beyond the law. Battling impossible odds by day and her own demons at night, Beatrice has never felt so alone.

She isn’t. Someone’s watching.

Someone else who believes in justice.

The poetic kind.

My opinion.

Behind Closed Doors is a brilliant crime novel. In the first part of the books we learn about the 'suicides' that have taken place over the last couple of years, by means of "flash back" chapters. Although this means you - as a reader - are a few steps ahead of Beatrice and her team, the suspense is still tangible. The story becomes even more fast paced when the 'suicides' catch up to the present time. Beatrice and her team are fighting a battle against time, without even realizing how little time they actually have left. You feel the urgency, maybe even more so than they do. I love the cover art work (James Lane). The colours are beautiful and the cover really suits the story. At times the dialogues felt a bit awkward and it was hard keeping up with all the different names and cases, but Behind Closed Doors is a very exciting crime mystery with a lot of suspense and exciting characters. I definitely look forward to reading more - and lucky for me, Behind Closed Doors is only the first book in the Beatrice Stubbs series!

 

About this author. As a child, Jill read so obsessively she got kicked out of the school library. But her passion for words continued. She graduated in English Literature and Theatre Studies from the University of Wales and set up a theatre company. Since then, as an actor, director, teacher, writer and journalist, she’s worked in fifteen countries. She learnt something from each one.Now, with her husband and three dogs, Jill lives in Switzerland, a country with four languages and mountains of new words.She works as a language trainer all over Europe, collaborates with Nuance Words and Triskele Books, and contributes regularly to Words with JAM magazine. But most of the time, she writes. And reads.

Behind Closed Doors is the first Beatrice Stubbs novel, a European crime series set in compelling locations all over the Continent.

You can find out more about JJ Marsh's Beatrice Stubbs European crime series on her website:  http://www.beatrice-stubbs.com/  

Or follow her on Twitter: @JJMarsh1

Thank you so much, Jill, for the opportunity to read and review

Behind Closed Doors. I really enjoyed Beatrice story. Thank you!