There is something so nice about picking up a new book by a favourite author featuring a favourite character.  A sense of anticipation.  And also a sense of fear.  What, you wonder, if it’s no good?  Expectations are high, and it’s much easier to be let down as a result.

All of these apply to me and Deadly Secrets by Robert Bryndza.  His Erika Foster series is one of my favourites in recent years.  Each one has been interesting and exciting and has left me wanting more.  With every book, I wonder if he’ll manage to make me happy again.

I am very pleased to say (especially given my recent mixed reading experience) that I have not been disappointed at all with this, the sixth book in the series.  

It starts only weeks after the ending of the last book, where Erika was involved in tracking down a Bonnie and Clyde type couple and rescuing two young girls.  It was a difficult case and it’s questionable as to whether she is completely back in the game.  Unfortunately, she has no choice when – on Christmas Day – she gets involved in a case of a beautiful young woman brutally murdered.

I saw unfortunately but for Erika it’s probably fortunate as it stops her looking at her life too closely.  Instead she gets to look at the young woman’s.  Marissa Lewis is a complicated victim, loved and hated it seems in equal measure.  Everyone Erika and her team talk to seem to have a different experience of Marissa, making it difficult to pin down suspects.  It all means plenty of red herrings and wrong turns and you couldn’t ask for more in this style of book.

You couldn’t ask for better characters either.  Erika is great.  She is strong, opinionated, and more than a bit damaged.  But she’s also human and that makes her real.  I have enjoyed watching her change from completely shut down and a complete wild card to a woman who realises she needs people in her life and that she has to rely on her team. Here, she does that more than before, helping keep the story fresh and the series interesting because it makes you wonder what next.

The only problem I have now is it’s over.  This lastest episode seemed to be over way too quickly and I am left wanting more.  Hopefully, I won’t have to wait too long.  In the meantime, this is definitely a recommended read.

Emma x

About the book…

To commit the perfect murder, you need the perfect cover.

On a cold icy morning, a mother wakes to find her daughter’s blood-soaked body frozen to the road. Who would carry out such a horrific killing on the victim’s doorstep?

Straight off her last harrowing case, Detective Erika Foster is feeling fragile but determined to lead the investigation. As she sets to work, she finds reports of assaults in the same quiet South London suburb where the woman was killed. One chilling detail links them to the murder victim – they were all attacked by a figure in black wearing a gas mask.

Erika is on the hunt for a killer with a terrifying calling card. The case gets more complicated when she uncovers a tangled web of secrets surrounding the death of the beautiful young woman.

Yet just as Erika begins to piece the clues together, she is forced to confront painful memories of her past. Erika must dig deep, stay focused and find the killer. Only this time, one of her own is in terrible danger…

Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication date: 13th April, 2018
Number of pages: 270
Genre: Crime, Police Procedural
Rating: 5 out of 5

Note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.