Trial By Execution
By T. M. E. Walsh
An unforgivable crime. A murderous act of revenge. A killer with justice on their side.
Once, the infamous Dahlia Rapist terrorised young women – and their parents alike – with his brutal acts of violence and sinister calling card.
Today, Raymond Knox has shunned his former alias and is being released into society.
But someone suspects that a monster still lurks beneath the surface. And when Raymond Knox is found dead, mutilated to match his victims, DCI Claire Winters is called in to catch a killer the public are calling a hero.
It seems like an open-and-shut case of vigilante justice. But when another body is found, with the same shocking scars, Claire knows she must connect that dots – fast. Because she’s suddenly facing something much more complicated than she ever imagined: a serial killer, inspired by past crimes – and determined to leave their own bloody trail of devastation…
DCI Claire Winters faces her toughest challenge yet in Trial by Execution, book 3 in the DCI Claire Winters series.
First, this is the 3rd in a series. I haven't read the other 2 but I didn't feel like I was missing out by not having read them. Now that I've read this one, I'm going to go back and check out her first two because this was good.
Once I started this the only thing that made me put it down was literally falling asleep while holding my tablet because it was after 2a then I finished it first thing in the morning when I woke. I also didn’t figure out who the killer was until right as it was being revealed which made me love this book even more when the killer isn’t obvious from chapter one.
I loved how Walsh creates her characters even her villians. There is so much I want to say about that but I have no idea how to express my extreme enthusiasm for what she did without giving something important away. The way she writes I felt like I was actually there crawling out of the ground with one of her victims. She makes it so realistic your skin crawls with the feeling of dirt on it like no shower will be enough.
She sets a good scene with a strong plot line which helps you get from A to B but her writing is so detailed and vibrant you WANT to go on this journey no matter where it’ll take you. She sets these gritty, bloody scenes that are like visual car accidents you can’t turn your head from – not that you want to or risk missing something.
Walsh is a fantastic crime writer that obviously knows how to wring out the best of this genre.
Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from amazon.com