A year after the death of his son, wealthy businessman Gregory Norwood is found dead in his study from what looks like a self-inflicted gunshot.

Despite all signs pointing to suicide, however, when Detectives Gino and Magozzi arrive at the scene, they aren’t so sure.  Everything is a little too perfect.  Plus, there’s the small fact of the blood they’ve found on the patio, blood which definitely doesn’t belong to Norwood.

So starts the latest wonderfully twist-y and turn-y outing for some of my favourite policemen and the Monkeewrench team, a group of hackers always skirting just on the right side of legal.

This is a great start to a book that gets more complicated by the page, but not so much so that you lose interest and give up.  I love the way P J Tracy leads you down dead ends and throws up red herrings just enough to keep you interested but not so much that you get frustrated.  And I love the way it all gets tied up at the end so that you wonder why you never thought of the outcome in the first place.

She has created some great characters in Gino and Magozzi, veteran detectives who work well together as a team and are incredibly solid and likeable. The Monkeewrench team add a bit of needed edge given how stable the detectives are and it all works really well together.  With this being the ninth book in the series and having read most of them, it’s great to see how they have all grown and become more real with each outing.

If I had one complaint, and it’s a small one, it’s that the ending felt a bit rushed.  Once I’d gotten to the big reveal, it was all over.  Personally, I’d have liked it dragged out a bit more, just to keep the tension going.  This is personal though, and such a small niggle.  It shouldn’t put you off reading the book if you enjoy a good piece of crime writing.

Enjoy!

Emma

About the book…

Gregory Norwood, wealthy businessman and close friend of Minnesota’s leading candidate for Governor, is found dead on the first anniversary of his son’s drug overdose. It seems clear to Detectives Gino and Magozzi that grief drove him to suicide.

Until they realise the left-handed man seems to have used his right hand to pull the trigger.

And they find the second body.

As the seemingly open-and-shut case becomes a murder enquiry, the detectives begin to delve into the dark secrets of one of the city’s most powerful families. It seems the murders are not the first in the Norwoods’ tragic story – and they won’t be the last . . .

Publisher: Michael Joseph
Publication Date: 23rd August, 2018
Number of Pages: 320
Genre: Police Procedural, Crime Fiction
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Find on: Goodreads / Amazon UK / Amazon US

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