I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for a review copy of Next Victim, the first novel to feature DCI Rachel King of GMP.

Rachel and the team investigate an incipient serial killer when the mutilated body of a young man is found in a canal near some waste ground. The investigation is hampered by Rachel’s secrets.

Next Victim is a solid read but it failed to capture or retain my attention for several reasons. The novel is told from two perspectives, that of Rachel and her team and that of the killer. I don’t like the switching from one voice to another as it tends to destroy my concentration but must admit that initially the voice of the killer is intriguing because it sticks to his actions and gives little hint of motive. I also like the connections between the characters which become apparent as the novel progresses. I think it is cleverly done.

I think the murder plot is fairly slim as it’s not really the focus of the novel. The author has preferred to concentrate on Rachel’s personal life and her secret former boyfriend, secret because he’s one of Manchester’s biggest criminals. I found the whole scenario extremely unlikely and her actions resulting from it unbefitting to the smart woman she must be to become a DCI. “Love of her life” doesn’t cut it for me to justify her actions over the years. As you can guess I found her annoying.

Next Victim is a solid read.

4 stars

DCI Rachel King lives in a highly dysfunctional family. Her two teenage daughters bicker all the time and she lives next door to her ex-husband who wants to join their two houses. Oh boy… She also has an ex-boyfriend, who wants to get reacquainted, but he is a major crime boss and she knows she’d be in deep trouble at work if such a relationship came out. She loves him however. What to do?

She gets a call to a dead body. The young man has been horribly tortured and murdered. There is no identification on him but patients police work leads to his identity as a college student studying journalism. According to his friends, he was on to a big story and also doing a story about the homeless. He was living rough for the time being and also mooching off his friends for room and board.

As the investigation proceeds, Rachel’s team learns that a friend of one of Rachel’s daughter’s friend Alice was also involved with the dead man. Alice has suffered for years from a possible delusion that she is one of a set of twins, but her brother named Alfie and her mother disappeared when she was a small child. Her father flatly denies the existence of any Alfie.

There are several plot lines going on in this book at once. The reader must keep on turning pages to discover if Ms. Durrant can pull them all together. This is a well written and plotted book. It reads pretty quickly and smoothly. One event follows another in a logical manner. I have read many of Ms. Durrant’s novels and this one rates up there with the rest. I am looking forward to the next in this series.

I want to thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.

My only complaint is that this book was too short!

This can be continued on well as a series as there were some unanswered questions towards the end.
I'm looking forward to watching the characters grow and develop.

I read this book in one sitting, it's a nice well paced read with relatively short chapters. I feel the best is yet to come

DCI Rachel King #1

A young man's body has been found burnt and tortured by one of Manchester's canals. DCI Rachel King has two teenage daughters and is divorced. She is called in to investigate the young man's murder. She also has a secret that she is hiding from her past that could badly affect her career.

This is the first book in a new series by the author Helen H. Durrant and if this first book is anything to go by, boy, this is going to be a great series. The pace is good with lots of secrets and stuff going on to keep the reader interested. A well written and thought out police procedural.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author Helen H. Durrant for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.
This was a mildly enjoyable read, but a bit of a cliche.
DCI Rachel King is investigating the brutal murder of a young man, tortured and burnt to death. She has quite a few personal.oroblems: she's divorced with two difficult daughters and is still in love with her old boyfriend, who just happens to be a crime boss...not something a policewoman wants her co-workers to know about. Unfortunately he might be involved in the murder as well as a second similar one.
I didn't much like her character, nor the rest of her team. The plot was, in my opinion, a bit hard to believe. I don't think I will read the 2nd in this new series. It's a 2.5 star read for me.

Next Victim is the first book in a new series by Helen Durrant.

The main character is DCI King who is based, along with her team, in Manchester. Needless to say King has a very complicated back story and private life that impact on the investigation and at times it seemed to distract a bug too much from the core story.

That saying the book is very readable and the supporting cast have plenty of promise. The first book in a series is always a bit of a scene setter so I will keep an eye out or future books

Recommended

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for this arc.

This was a nice solid read for me. It is the first Rachel King story and I do hope there are more. Rachel is a DCI with the Manchester Police. She is also a gal with a lot of secrets.... some of which are sorta resolved with this story, although given her inability to be completely honest with anyone (about anything), I suspect those secrets will continue to rise up and haunt her again in the future. She is still a very engaging character even with her screwed up priorities. The supporting characters of her team are also intriguing and I definitely look forward to seeing more of them in the future. This was a fast paced and somewhat twisted procedural.

I’d like to thank Joffe Books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Next Victim’ by Helen H Durrant in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The body of a blonde-haired young man is found tortured and thrown in the canal and DCI Rachel King of Manchester CID’s Serious Crime Squad is given the case. Not long after another young man’s body is found and his looks are remarkably similarity to the first victim. Is the killer targeting a certain type of young man? The case is taking longer to solve than Rachel anticipated as the killer appears to be deliberately leaving false clues causing her team to waste time chasing trails that don’t exist. While she works all hours of the day and night trying to solve these crimes Jed McAteer, well-known criminal, property developer and Rachel’s ex-lover from university days, is back on the scene causing her problems. Can Rachel discover the identity of the killer without her boss finding out about her personal life and putting her job with the police at risk?

‘Next Victim’ is Helen H Durrant’s first thriller featuring DCI Rachel King and I hope it won’t be the last. I like the character of Rachel King as she struggles with a tough job at the same time as keeping her family safe, while trying to avoid the skeletons in her closet from becoming common knowledge. It has a gripping and fast-paced plot, twists and turns that kept me guessing, and the deeper I got into the story the more the tension increased, leading to the conclusion that was nail-bitingly dramatic. This is definitely a thriller not to be missed.

This is my first Helen H Durrant book and I was not disappointed at all it was an excellent read and a great start to a new series that I hope will continue. The writing was top notch and the characters were very real with all the foibles of everyday life to contend with and Rachel King more than most when an old flame comes back into her life making her job as a DCI very difficult. So if you want a good sound police procedural with lots going on you have it all here and well recommended and a solid 4 stars.
My thanks to NetGalley and Joffe Books for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Helen Currant strikes again. Another fast paced murder mystery. Someone is torturing and murdering young gay men in Manchester, and carefully crafting it so that the police look in a specific direction. The detective in charge has a secret which could interfere with the case, but will it?

An enjoyable book

ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

 DCI Rachel King is a mother of two teenage girls and is divorce.

As she is called in to investigate a young man murder she has deal with a secret from her past that can affect her career and her family.

As the investigate heats up it leads to her daughter friend Alice who insist she had a twin brother. As i was reading I thought she was involve with the murders because she lost her brother and everyone thought she was crazy and her father kept deny she had a twin brother I'm like I bet the killer but I won't spoil if the twin brother is real or not or the killer.

Even though this was a ok read I wish it was more a thriller. I'm definitely want to read from this author again.