(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

After years of abuse, Gemma Adderley has finally found the courage to leave her violent husband. She has taken one debilitating beating too many, endured one esteem-destroying insult too much. Taking her seven-year-old daughter Carly, she leaves the house, determined to salvage what she can of her life.
She phones Safe Harbour, a women's refuge, and they tell her which street corner to wait on and what the car that will pick her up will look like. They tell her the word the driver will use so she knows it's safe to get in.
And that's the last they hear from her.
Gemma Adderley's daughter Carly is found wandering the city streets on her own the next day. Her mother's mutilated corpse turns up by the canal several weeks later. Her heart has been removed.
Detective Inspector Phil Brennan takes on the case, bringing in his wife, psychologist Marina Esposito, to try and help unlock Carly's memories of what happened that day. The race is on to solve the case before the Heartbreaker strikes again...

Crime fiction is one of my pet loves and it can take quite a bit to impress me - let alone score 5 stars. Just a case of "read it before, but better" - with so many great writers out there, finding a new one can be hard. While this may not score 5 stars (there are a few issues), it is certainly worthy of investigating other books. Here's why:

Fantastic plot that kept me flicking the pages;
Two MC's that worked well together - either in a professional or personal setting;
Domestic abuse and misogyny are not usually light subject matters but are dealt with respectfully and a great deal of knowledge;
The sense that this is part of a bigger series of novels - not just another book pumped out for the benefit of the publisher...

While there were some problems at times with pacing and it was lacking a little bit on the "scary" factor that it was billed as but, overall, a very good crime novel and one that I recommend. I am also going to go back and start at the beginning to follow the characters to this point.


Paul
ARH