#BookReview Robert Bryndza - Lethal Vengeance (Erika Foster #8)
The blurb.
The man lay on his front, his arms and legs bound and pulled up with a rope connecting the two. His head was arched back, so he faced the curtains, and there was masking tape over his mouth. Erika gingerly reached out and checked his pulse.
Yep. Dead all right.
When Detective Erika Foster finds politician Neville Lomas naked, hog-tied, and dead in his own bed, skittish higher-ups at the Met quickly rule the death from natural causes. Case closed . . . until two months later when a well-known casting director and a star footballer are found murdered and tied with the same knots. The Met can no longer ignore what’s staring them in the face: there’s a serial killer loose in London, and they’re out to settle a score.
As Erika and her team investigate, things take a strange turn as CCTV footage turns up five female suspects . . . and they’re all identical.
In the hunt to identify the women, Erika is outpaced at every turn by an elusive sex worker with dirt on enough powerful men to make the Met’s top brass nervous – and desperate.
As time ticks away until the killer strikes again, it’s up to Erika to untangle the web of evidence and answer the critical questions: What ties the victims together, who else is caught up in this scandal, and how far are the higher-ups willing to go to protect their own?
Gripping, tense and impossible to put down, Lethal Vengeance will have you on the edge of your seat, racing to the final dramatic page.
My review.
Hard to believe this is the eight book in the Detective Erika Foster series, when both the main character(s), the villains and the cases keep surprising you. Although Erika has reflected before on how her life turned out, choices she made, things that happened,... she seems a bit more melancholic about them in this book, being ever more conscious about her age. She might see herself as an "old dinosaur" compared to some new people on the force, she's still as fearless, determined and smart as ever. (I for one am not at all ready to say goodbye to DCI Erika Foster, Rob!)
With a high profile case surrounded by secrecy and threats, Erika has to stand her ground and fight for her place in the investigation yet again. But, yet again, she easily proves why she is the best detective to have on the case. I love how Erika has a team around her with some excellent detectives she can trust, especially when there's so much suspicion surrounding this particular case, and so much police 'politics' she always seems to be on the wrong side of. It's comforting to know she has a couple of loyal, unconditional relationships as well. She's come a long way since first arriving in London!
In this book we, as readers, have some insight into the killer's past and motives, but a lot remains a mystery and the pieces of the puzzle all end up falling into place beautifully, bit by bit. I loved the villain, the extra layers added by the secrecy, suspicion and disguises. Probably one of my favourite storylines yet. It's gripping until the very end. Literally, 'cause I checked twice to see if that actually was the final chapter, the final sentence. No spoilers... But I'm still in suspense and haven't been able to put this book, this case, to rest. And obviously, neither has Erika.
Dive in for a gripping, thrilling, exciting crime thriller.
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