The detective stared at the young woman lying on the bed. She almost looked peaceful, her face like porcelain. Despite everything she had been through, she was still beautiful.
When DI Bernie Noel hurries to Keira Howard’s hospital bedside, she knows that Keira has been lucky. Barely conscious and badly injured, at least she is alive. Convinced that Keira’s attack is the latest in a string of increasingly violent assaults on young women in the area, the next victim might not be so fortunate. So she vows to find the man who did this, and to stop him before anyone else gets hurt.
Spurring her team into action, she quickly hones in on a prime suspect. But then he suddenly dies while on police watch, and Bernie’s investigation goes into freefall. When Bernie’s superiors won’t let her take the case any further, her gut instinct tells her there’s much more to his death than meets the eye. If it was murder, who would want him dead, and why? So she determines to set out on her own to find out what happened.
But the closer Bernie comes to discovering the truth, the more she is putting her own life in danger. And with Keira finally strong enough to talk her about her attack, Bernie worries she may be at risk yet again. There’s someone out there who has killed to stay safe in the shadows; can Bernie stop another senseless death, and save Keira, before it’s too late?
My thoughts on Left for Dead…
With such a detailed intro, you probably know as much about the book as I do having read it. Well, maybe not quite because this book has so many twists and turns that even I’m not 100% sure what was happening.
Is this a bad thing? No, not necessarily. But here, it didn’t help me get into – or stay with – the story (where in other cases, it would have kept me up wondering what was happening next).
In part, I think I ‘zoned out’ a bit because some of the twists were just one coincidence too far. The fact that this was the third (possibly fourth?) in a series didn’t help either. I felt like I was missing things, bits of the back story that would have fleshed out the characters.
Which were another problem for me. I just didn’t connect with them, including the central character Bernie. I couldn’t figure out who she was (again, the missing back story probably played into this).
I feel like I’m being a bit of a negative Nelly, which I don’t mean to be. I think that, had I started with book one, I would feel more positive (in fact, I may go back and give it a go). I just don’t think it works well as a standalone novel, which I think series need to do so the uninitiated amongst us can jump right in.
Sorry! 3/5 stars.
Emma
Please note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review. All thoughts, feelings, and opinions are my own.
One Readers Thoughts 
I agree that each book in a series really needs to stand on its own. Not every reader wants to commit to reading every series in order.
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I know…I have so many series I am out of synch on….too many books, too little time 😀
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These are tough when you’re not getting the whole picture due to it being a series or whatever. Coincidences that are a little too convenient bug me too.
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It is.I always think series books should still be standalone (unless they ar clearly a trilogy etc.)
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[…] I reviewed Left for Dead last week, one of the things that bothered me was that it was part of a series and – because […]
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