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I have come to really enjoy this police procedural series set mainly in the Stoke-On-Trent area of Staffordshire. The protagonist, Kate Young is a very complex character. Recently widowed, she still tries valiantly to communicate with her dead husband, Chris. She feels certain that her superior, Superintendent John Dickson is corrupt and is largely responsible for Chris’s murder. So, while she has a very serious and complicated case to solve, she always has that on her mind. She is determined to bring Superintendent John Dickson to justice and avenge her husband’s murder.
The present case is a very perplexing one indeed. There have been several murders that have recently taken place using a captive bolt pistol. A weapon used to humanely put animals down. The victims were killed instantly. They were unknown to one another and the cases seem to have very little to link them, other than the weapon that killed them. Kate is leading a very small team, and they are pushed to their utmost limits in this particular murder investigation. Also, Kate is wary that one of her team might be reporting back to Dickson, which makes her team communication a real challenge. The team, for the most part, seem to get along well and I enjoyed the camaraderie and teamwork. The addition of a criminal profiler, Samuel, puts an extra spin on the team’s framework.
Though the subplot of Kate’s obsession with bringing Dickson to justice is integral to the plot, I’ll admit that I found it both frustrating and a tad annoying. I wished that he would be found guilty so that Kate could devote her entire concentrated efforts on the case in hand.
With an intense and climatic ending, this instalment in the series makes for riveting reading. The story ends with a cliffhanger, so that I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the Kate Young series. I feel it is a series that very much needs to be read in order, so that Kate’s personality is more easily understood.
“A Life For A Life” was a twisty serial killer thriller that incorporates themes of retribution, police corruption, and devastating loss. A police procedural series that I heartily recommend.
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley.
Publication date: March 15, 2022
Publisher: Thomas and Mercer/Amazon Publishing UK
ISBN: 9781542021074 ASIN: B09BCPR894 – 364 pages
This title is from my extensive NetGalley backlist.
A former teacher and linguist, Carol Wyer is now a USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award. Her crime novels have sold over 1 million copies and have been translated into nine languages.
January 2017, saw her move from humour to police procedurals with Little Girl Lost, the first in the DI Robyn Carter series. The books, set in Staffordshire where Carol has lived for over 30 years, earned her acclaim as a crime writer and in 2018, a new team lead by DI Natalie Ward was introduced to her readers.
February 2021, saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.
As well as writing crime, Carol also still writes comedies because as the ex-stand-up comedian claims, “Laughter is the best medicine”.
She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy.
Follow Carol Wyer on Twitter @carolewyer and/or on Instagram.
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English (US) ·