This review is spoiler free.
‘Then heaven help us all,’ she replied, and without a further word, walked back inside.
Series: Detective Kate Young
Published: 2021, by Thomas & Mercer.
Pages: 426
Format: eBook/Kindle Edition
Genre: Mystery, Crime, Thriller, Fiction
Contains: Blood/Gore, Violence, Death, Murder, Torture
‘An Eye for an Eye’ follows DI Kate Young who is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest. But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer is closer than she ever imagined.
This book was the first I’d picked out on Kindle Unlimited, loving female detectives and this concept was one I was desperate to delve into. It wasn’t what I had in mind, however, but it was still enjoyable.
DI Kate Young is an interesting character, witnessing a detective unravel before your eyes as she overcomes past trauma and tries to solve an intense serial killer case. However, that’s all we really know about her, there being a severe lack of connection to her and all the other characters in the novel. I didn’t feel anything for her for the majority of the book, and I didn’t care for the other detectives or the victims either.
The writing itself is a little over-edited, being without much emotion generated on the page to feel anything for the characters. There was a severe lack of description and without that, readers were left on their own to make up the locations and characters on their own. It was simply statement after statement and that disappointed me. I wanted to solve the case alongside the characters, but I didn’t have that degree of closeness to them.
However, it wasn’t all negative, as I deeply enjoyed the twists and turns this novel took me on, as well as the surrounding premise of a detective under so much mental anguish and strain. It was unique, fun, and fascinating to watch her unravel.
Overall, this was an okay read. It wasn’t the best I’ve read, and I feel it could have done with a little less editing, but it was still enjoyable.
3/5
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