Cover Image: Too Close to Breathe

Too Close to Breathe

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Member Reviews

Nothing is as it seems in the new top-notch thriller Too Close to Breathe by debut Irish novelist Olivia Kiernan.

Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan is back to work after being stabbed in the line of duty. Frankie is placed in charge of a large team looking into the death of Professor Eleanor Costello. One small forensic finding makes Eleanor’s hanging not a suicide but a murder. There are indications that Eleanor may have been a victim of physical abuse. Eleanor’s husband has also disappeared. As the body count rises, it appears that a serial killer is at large in Dublin. I won’t say more as the fun is trying to follow the twisty plot.

Frankie’s PTSD is almost another character in Too Close to Breathe. The case against her assailant is going to trial soon. Frankie’s back story is slowly unveiled through flashbacks.

Too Close to Breathe was a thrilling read until the last 15%. I wasn’t happy with the end. It didn’t necessarily play fair with the amateur detective reader. Or maybe I’m just upset because I didn’t guess who did it. It was also rather abrupt. There were also many coincidences toward the end. However, this book still deserves 4 stars for the innovative structure of a detective with PTSD and some of the other surprising aspects of the crime not often used in thrillers. I hope this is the start of a long and productive series.

Thanks to the publisher, Dutton, and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

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A woman is found hanging in her home. Is it suicide or murder? Soon, there is another murder, some disappearances, and a cast of suspicious characters tied to the underworld of the Dark Web and BDSM.

Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan leads the investigation for the Bureau for Serious Crime. She has just returned from a leave of absence after being attacked while working another case. There are frequent referrals back to this case, initially giving snippets of details about the earlier incident. At first, I thought this was the second novel in a series and wished I had read the first one for better background. But, this is a debut novel and in time all was revealed.

This police procedural focuses quite a bit on Frankie’s inner thoughts and especially the impact of her recent trauma. This is a quick, compelling read, well written with a fairly tight storyline. An excellent debut; I hope it will become a series.

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A good, twisty police procedural set in Dublin. Frankie Sheehan is on her first case back after being badly injured during a murder investigation. At first the case seems a straightforward suicide - a woman found hanged in her own bedroom - but soon evidence mounts that the woman was murdered.

This novel will draw immediate comparisons to Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, but Kiernan’s novel is more in the vein of a quick, thrilling read than French’s slower character studies. I look forward to the next in this new series.

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Pedal to the metal from the very first page. Suspenseful and dark - oh so dark. This one really creeped me out. But I love Irish procedurals so I kept going. I look forward to the next book featuring Frankie.

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It looks to be a standard suicide when Eleanor Costello is found hanging in her Dublin home. DCS Frankie Sheehan certainly wants it to be. After her last homicide case almost left the Detective dead herself, she’s suffering from a serious case of PTSD. Now all she wants to do is tie up the paperwork on this suicide. But an autopsy reveals old stab wounds and bruises, badly mended bones and other things that aren’t in Eleanor’s medical records. And then there’s the most recent cut on the victim, covered in paint. To further complicate matters, Costello’s husband is missing. When another woman is found dead, also with paint on her body, Frankie works with the only leads she has. A book and a laptop with access to the Dark Web found in the Costello home. This was an exciting read from a new author who will surely be compared to Tana French

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