Hope to Die
When the victim seems perfect, is it the perfect crime? The gripping new serial killer thriller, from the runaway bestselling author of CRY BABY.
On a bitterly cold winter's night, Liverpool is left stunned by a brutal murder in the grounds of the city's Anglican Cathedral. A killer is on the loose, driven by a chilling rage.
Put on the case, DS Nathan Cody is quickly stumped. Wherever he digs, the victim seems to be almost angelic - no-one has a bad word to say, let alone a motive for such a violent murder.
And Cody has other things on his mind too. The ghosts of his past are coming ever closer, and - still bearing the physical and mental scars - it's all he can do to hold onto his sanity. And then the killer strikes again . . .
David Jackson became one of my fan favorites with his first series following an Irish-American cop now he’s turned his attention across the pond to America’s mother country, don’t hate me for reminding you of your bio-mom.
First off, this is the second in his new series and you definitely need to have read the first in order to appreciate the characters and truly understand the context of the world they exist in.
Jackson writes superlative, descriptive imagery in his scenes when he describes what settings the characters are interacting with even turning nature itself into a character with human like emotions, sometimes the more scary ones.
He makes his crime scenes seem somehow beautiful and lyrical while reminding us of the monsters that went bump in the night scaring us into near seizures as we hid beneath a mountain of blankets on our beds. By the time you’re done reading this, all those nightmares you thought you outgrew will come roaring back; make sure you have a nightlight handy just in case you feel like sleeping.
His well-developed characters communicate with realistic sounding dialogue and witty banter between colleagues. I like that he included foreign characters so we got a more diverse sense of the people that live England. Examining the effects of PTSD as it stems from traumatic events on law enforcement who are trying to continue finding the monsters that terrorize us while battling their own was well done. The use of spirituality and God made for another layer of edginess over the story as he turned them into a behind the scenes character which kept affecting the story in unseen ways; the contrast between that and an Atheistic Detective was fun to watch as it played out because it was more of a partnership than a competition.
Jackson surely knows how to use red herrings because you think you’ll know how it’s going to end then he gut punches your self-esteem with a twist that doesn’t seem possible.
Be prepared to feel edgy until the next book hits because he really does leave you clinging to the edge of your seat with his work.
Thank you to Netgalley and Zaffre for allowing me to review this book.
*synopsis and pic from netgalley.com