A man walks into a public garden in the heart of Dublin. It is lunchtime and the park is slowly filling up with people taking a well-earned break. He opens his bag and removes a gun. However, this is no modern day killing spree, instead he lifts the gun, places it to his temple and pulls the trigger.

If Looks Could Kill is the third in Olivia Kiernan’s series concerning Gardaí officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan, assigned to the Bureau for Serious Crime in Dublin. As she says, they are the first stop for all serious crime that may be of national interest. The death in the park, however, doesn’t initially come to her attention. It’s very clearly a suicide and therefore not of sufficient significance to merit investigation at her level. The case that does drop into her lap is that of Debbie Nugent, reported as a missing person, but from the blood-splattered state of her home, almost certainly either seriously injured or murdered. Initially, suspicion falls on the younger of Debbie‘s two daughters, Margot. It becomes increasingly clear that Debbie has been missing for much longer than was first apparent and, given that Margot lives with her mother, questions are automatically raised about why she hasn’t reported her absence sooner. When Margot is taken into custody and charged with the crime, Frankie’s boss, Commissioner Donna Hegarty, would like to see the case all neatly packed away but Shelly Griffiths, an old University friend and something of a rarity in crime fiction, a reporter who isn’t out just for a good story, contacts Frankie with information that suggests there may be other factors in Debbie‘s past that need to be taken into consideration. Why has she been so solitary, so private? Why has she so tightly controlled the lives of both her children, especially that of Margot? And what, if anything, is her connection with the man who shot himself in that Dublin park?

In an attempt to find out more about Debbie‘s background Frankie and her immediate boss, Jack Clancy, look to the local police force, in the personages of DS Alex Gordon and retired Detective Sergeant, Dennis Fitzsimons, for help. but no one seems to be able to give them any information that might suggest a culprit other than Margot. But what you see is not always what you get. Advising Frankie at the very onset of her career, her Gardaí officer father tells her

it’s important to know who you are, love, but more important to know how others see you.
What Frankie needs to do is to remember the corollary to that, namely that it is possible that how you see someone is how they want you to see them and not who they really are. Hampered by her uncertainty as to who can and cannot be trusted and thwarted by her attempts to dig deeper into the past of the Dublin suicide by the Chief of the Gardaí Surveillance Unit, who really thinks he is someone, Frankie is forced to turn for help to the very criminal element she should be trying to put behind bars.

Olivia Kiernan is an extremely accomplished writer. She has been likened to Tana French and I would certainly put her writing alongside that of Jane Casey. And you all know how well I think of her as a writer. Her characters are finely drawn, and she plots very tightly. She also insures that particular themes echo throughout a novel. Here, as I’ve already indicated, it’s very much to do with the question of the persona that somebody puts on as a public face and the question of who that person really is behind what may be a very deceptive mask. A further question that is raised early on is that of whether it is better to follow your instincts or to follow the evidence, a deliberation that is the source of much tension between Frankie and Commissioner Hegarty. Following events in the previous novel, The Killer in Me, Frankie vows to become more cautious, less reliant on instinct rather than evidence. Perhaps what she learns here is that you need to combine the two and use your instinct to make sure you look for evidence in the right place. If Looks Could Kill reinforces Kiernan’s growing reputation in the crime fiction world and if you haven’t already met her work then I strongly recommend her to you.

With thanks to Quercus and NetGalley for the review copy.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Quercus Books for an advance copy of If Looks Could Kill, the third novel to feature DCS Frankie Sheehan of An Garda Síochána.

Frankie and her team go to Wicklow to investigate the disappearance of Debbie Nugent. Judging from the blood in the house Debbie is almost certainly dead, but more puzzling is the behaviour of her daughter, Margot, who has been living in the house and didn’t report her mother missing. Further investigation hints at family secrets with a long history.

I thoroughly enjoyed If Looks Could Kill which has an unusual premise, plenty of twists and turns and finishes in an unexpected and possibly unforeseeable conclusion. After the prologue, whose connection will only become apparent late in the novel, the novel is told exclusively in the first person from Frankie’s point of view. In this novel there is good and bad in this approach and as the good outweighs the bad I like it. A single point of view allows the reader to get immersed in the story and live the plot developments along with the characters. It also means that the reader is not privy to additional information and can work the clues to reach their own conclusions. It adds to the interest and encourages page turning. Also, Frankie has a clear, likeable voice. The downside in this novel is that her thinking is muddled. There are plenty of things she should have been doing early in the investigation and didn’t. This, it turns out, is a deliberate ploy by the author as these things come into play later when the investigation takes a turn in a new direction, but their early omission creates a frustrating impression of muddle and unprofessionalism.

This early false start aside the novel jogs along at a fast clip and is quite compulsive as Frankie and the team strive to find out what happened to Debbie and deal with a host of other issues uncovered during their investigation. I certainly didn’t foresee where the novel would end after the first few chapters. It’s quite a feat to move the novel as far as the author does.

If Looks Could Kill is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

This is the third in Olivia Kiernan's Frankie Sheehan series and it is the best so far. Like many cops in crime fiction, Frankie is troubled and fallible but a darn good cop nevertheless. The principal characters are all well described and the atmosphere of the Dublin area comes across strongly. This book has everything, a bloody corpse, gang rivalries, bent cops and plenty of intrigue. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. If you want a thriller with twists and turns and great characters you will really enjoy this book. I loved it.

Frankie Sheehan is a bit of a complex character so, as this is book three of her series, you might be better starting at book one and reading in order if you want to get the very best from her.
In this book Frankie is summoned to rural Wicklow where a woman has disappeared, leaving behind a scene that gets her family worried. Debbie Nugent has two daughters, one she lives with, the other having just returned from abroad, on the same day as the scene was discovered. As Frankie starts to question both daughters and also Debbie's neighbours and other people who knew her, a strange story starts to come out. Could she have gone missing earlier than they thought and, if so, how on earth could Margot, the daughter living with her, have not noticed her disappearance, let alone the bloody scene left behind? Does she know more than she's telling, and if so, why?
This book hit the ground running for me, kept my attention nicely throughout and spat me out in the end wholly satisfied. I was aching to find out the truth, cut through all the secrets, lies and duplicitous behaviour peppered throughout the narrative. Frankie is an excellent character who I already connected to in her previous books and that relationship continues during this one. She is not infallible and does make mistakes which makes her come across as real as she, after all, is only human. She's good at her job too, like a little yappy dog that you just can't keep quiet, she chips away at all the stuff and nonsense going on, exposing the truth bit by bit.
Pacing is good and matches what is going on in the story very well. Characterisation is good, main and bit part characters alike all come across, within the bounds of their parts to play, as well crafted.
All in all, a cracking addition to a series that is firmly on my watch list. Looking forward to seeing what the author has in store for Frankie next time. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

#IfLooksCouldKill #NetGalley
An original plot with an unexpected ending.
DCS Frankie Sheehan is experiencing a crisis of confidence - having become wary of the instincts that have led her face-to-face with a twisted killer and brought those she loves into direct jeopardy.She is summoned to the rural Wicklow mountains, where local mother of two, Debbie Nugent, has been reported missing. A bloody crime scene is discovered at Debbie's home, yet no body. Not only is foul play suspected, but Debbie's daughter, Margot, has been living with the scene for three days
Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for giving me an advanced copy.

You can always guarantee a good read from Olivia Kiernan. Hard hitting Dublin set drama with a woman murdered in the lovely Wicklow Mountains. This is a book coming out in April so even more reason to read it and highlight it to make up for the fact that this author might not have a book launch.
The characters, drama and plot are as great as ever and Olivia is fast becoming a Queen of Dublin crime dramas for me.