LETHAL VENGEANCE

5 stars out of 5

Another year (well, give or take a few months), another installment of a favorite series. And as always, it doesn't disappoint. This time out, Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster is out and about with her main squeeze, Igor, for a rare posh dinner. Worried about why he set up such a special occasion, she takes a time out at the loo and returns by way of a wrong door that puts her up close and personal with a dead body that's been left in a, shall we say, compromising position. Of course, Erika's not one to tiptoe away from a scene like that - but maybe she should have. Turns out the dead dude is a Conservative member of Parliament. Quicker than you can say trussed up, another top cop moves in, claiming the case for himself.

And it's downhill from there. Despite Erika's keen interest in pursuing what clearly was a murder, she's shut out at just about every level; clearly, someone high in the pecking order wants this case squelched. Facing obstacles at every turn, what's a DCI to do? She backs off - mostly - but her interest reignites with the discovery of another well-known body - and then another - both done in with the exact same M.O. Now, it's harder for the powers-that-be to shove things under the rug, although Erika must remain vigilant since she suspects her department has been infiltrated by a puppet whose strings are controlled by the aforementioned powers.

Besides some important clues found (left) at each crime scene, the best the investigation can turn up is a group of five females, dressed identically in all black, who appear to have been present at or around the time of the murders. But who they are, where they are now and whether they have any real connection to the deaths remains a mystery. With the higher-ups still insisting that Erika and her team back off, finding answers becomes a real challenge. And in between all this, Erika must deal with a boyfriend who isn't terribly happy with taking a back seat to the investigation for a variety of reasons.

It's a scramble to the finish, which leaves an intriguing cliffhanger that likely will carry over to the next one up (at least I hope so). I'll be waiting - and meantime I heartily thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy of this one. Well done!

Lethal Vengeance by Robert Bryndza (Raven Street Publishing, February 2024); 407 pp.

FATAL WITNESS

5 stars out of 5

This is a favorite series, and I must say I enjoyed this latest entry (the seventh). It checked all the boxes for a great crime story, put the star of the show, Chief Detective Erika Foster, in all kinds of situations in which she doesn't want to be (including possibly dead) and kept me turning the pages right up to the end. The only downside is that it was four long years in the making.

The story begins as Erika makes her way back to her new fixer-upper home in Blackheath after fetching fish and chips and hears blood-curdling screams. Coming from a flat near her home, she learns the screams are coming from a woman who has just found her brutally murdered sister inside the flat. The woman, named Vicky Clarke, was a true-crime podcaster, making Erica and her team suspect that the victim had stumbled onto something her attacker didn't want broadcast for all the world to hear.

From that point on, things quickly become complicated - and revealing much more wouldn't be prudent. I'll just say that relationships dominate the story - those of the victim and her circle of friends and neighbors and those of Erika herself. Her old fling and coworker Detective Inspector James Peterson, for instance, is no longer the former but still the latter (with a new main squeeze, no less), which creates a few moments that are awkward at best. A couple of sets of sisters bring out the worst in sibling rivalry, and a prime suspect must be treated with kid gloves because of his ties to department powers-that-be and an old friend makes a surprise appearance.

All told, it's an engaging page-turner that brings Erika back into action after a four-year-or-so hiatus; I'm happy to see her, and I'm sure other readers will be as well. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to get to know her again through a pre-release review copy. And to the author, please, pretty please, don't wait so long to write the next installment!

Fatal Witness by Robert Bryndza (Raven Street Publishing, July 2022); 373 pp.

DEADLY SECRETS

4.5 stars out of 5

If you're like me and enjoy a good detective series, I highly recommend this one (it's the sixth book featuring London Detective Erika Foster). She's a bit reminiscent of J.D. Robb's Lt. Eve Dallas - another of my favorites - like Eve, tough as nails, but with less of a secretive, angst-ridden background.

The story begins not long after Erika's last case, and she's trying for some semblance of normalcy over the Christmas holidays (four years after her husband and fellow officer Mark was killed in action). But that involves going to a Christmas lunch at her supervisor's house that she's less than thrilled about - so when news of a murder comes in, off she goes to check it out. A young woman named Marissa has been brutally murdered - frozen to the icy ground in front of her home. Further investigation determines she was attacked by a black-clad person wearing a gas mask; and soon enough, Erika learns of other men and women who's been attacked by a similarly clad and as-yet unidentified person.

Clues lead in different directions, including to a strange young man who tended to focus his photography skills on the murdered Marissa and the elderly woman for whom Marissa was a part-time caregiver. But just as things are at something of a stalemate, the story takes a bit of a detour from the usual format. Erika is called to deal with issues of her late husband Mark's aging father, leaving co-worker (and another favorite character) Moss in charge of the department and heading up the biggest case of her career. As events transpire for both women, readers see more of their personal sides.

Truthfully, the departure is a little bit painful; Moss seems to be so far out of her element that she's almost rendered ineffective, and while it's nice to know Erika has a softer side in there somewhere, I much prefer her when it doesn't show quite so much. 

That said, it's a totally engrossing book that's hard to put down (I read it easily in two days of spare time). The ending is both exciting and surprising - I guessed the who, but never in a million years would I have come up with the very intriguing why. Many thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read this latest installment in exchange for an honest review. Good job once again!

Deadly Secrets by Robert Bryndza (Bookouture, April 2018); 270 pp.

COLD BLOOD

4 stars out of 5


Once again, I'll make a pitch for half-stars in book ratings. Because once again, my "real" rating is 4.5 stars - and that's only because I enjoyed it a teensy bit less than the others (this is the fifth in the author's Detective Erika Foster series). 

It stands well on its own, but as those who follow my book reviews well know by now, I always advise starting any series at the beginning, as I did. The bottom line, I guess, is that any time you've got emotionally scarred but likable heroes and heroines, murder and mayhem and an investigation that never loses steam from start to finish, what's not to like? My only reservation here is that in a few spots, the exposition almost seemed like an afterthought - something that wasn't written into the story where it should have been.

That said, the plot is unique, intriguing and fast-paced. Erika is called in to check out an old suitcase that's washed up on the banks of the Thames in London. To everyone's horror, it contains the body of a young man - not only dead, but chopped into smaller pieces so he'd fit inside the container. As Erika gathers her team to get the investigation going, another suitcase turns up - this time with the body of a young woman. She, too, has been whacked to fit, leading to the conclusion that a serial killer is on the loose. Small packets of drugs were found in the stomach of one of of the bodies - another confusing detail but one that ends up not only nearly bringing the police department to its knees, but an end to Erika's career (and very nearly her life).

From the beginning, readers see flashbacks that introduce two far less than upstanding characters named Nina and Max - misfits who have found each other (they're happy, but others who meet up with them are not so much). Chapters told from their perspectives offer highlights of their new life as a couple and are interspersed with those detailing what's going on with Erika and the investigation, all building to an exciting finish as everything comes together. I admit I'm not a fan of this perspective-shifting technique, but that's mostly because it's been done to death (so to speak). But when it's done well, as it is here, I also admit it's very effective.

Overall, this is nothing short of another winner. Many thanks to the publisher (via NetGalley) for the opportunity to read and review it in exchange for an honest review. Over the course of the series, Erika has become one of my favorite characters. Already, I'm looking forward to the next installment. 

Cold Blood by Robert Bryndza (Bookouture, September 2017); 378 pp.

LAST BREATH

5 stars out of 5

Gruesome murders. A possible serial killer on the loose. Unrest and a big shake-up in England's Bromley Police Department. And that's just for openers in this, the fourth in the author's series featuring Detective Erika Foster. What more could any mystery lover want?

Nothing, says this mystery lover (and lover of this series in particular) - except possibly a few additional chapters to give me more time with my nose in these pages and/or a very short wait till the fifth installment is published. Meantime, I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an advance review copy of this one.

The beginning finds Erika in a sort of informal personal relationship with fellow police officer James Peterson and no longer working on the Murder Squad. But when the dead body of a woman who had been horribly tortured turns up in a dumpster, Erika wants her old job back so she can take the lead on the case. The powers that be aren't exactly hot to trot on the idea - Erika isn't known for mincing words - but after another surprise twist (and the discovery of a possible tie-in with an eerily similar murder a few months earlier), her wish is granted, at least temporarily.

All the investigative team can figure out is that the killer apparently is stalking his victims online and using an online dating service to lure them to him. Finding who and where he is, though, proves far more difficult; even learning the color and make of his car isn't much help - it's one of the most popular in all of England.

The story moves along quickly, and I love how new bits of information on the characters are worked in as the action becomes more complex and exciting (I finished the last quarter of the book nonstop just because I was totally wrapped up in what was happening). I couldn't wait to get to the end but didn't want it to end, if you know what I mean.

I know reviewers aren't supposed to use quotes from advance copies without checking them against the published version. But I've noticed what may be a trend, especially among British authors, to work in a reference or two to the current political situation here in the States. This won't appear on my review at Amazon after the book is released, but it's just too good to not mention here (I'll also say it is my fervent hope that it makes the final cut). As one police department character questions whether to allude to a serial killer in a news conference, the response is this:

"...I think there's enough other crap happening in the media right now. People are more concerned with who is President of the USA. Will another bogeyman faze them?"

From where I sit, oh heck no.

Last Breath by Robert Bryndza (Bookouture, April 2017); 281 pp.

DARK WATER

5 stars out of 5


Oh my. Good thing I'm a fast reader. From the moment I booted up my Kindle Fire and opened this book, I didn't want to put it down. As it was, it took two days - although that's not bad considering all the other "stuff" I had to do in between. I'll give a special shout-out to my ever-lovin' hubby, who didn't blink an eye when I told him dinner would be a little later than usual tonight because I was too close to the end to stop).

Still another thank you goes to the author and publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. To that end, will "Wow!" suffice?

For everyone else, a bit of a plot description is in order. This is the third in the series featuring Detective Erika Foster (preceded by The Girl in the Ice and Night Stalker.  Here, she's serving at the Bromley Police Station in London, where she was transferred three months earlier. She didn't arrive without baggage; her police career is dotted with successes and failures, with one of the latter involving the death of her beloved husband, for which she's blamed herself ever since. She's an immigrant from Slovakia, and she's had to fight her own feelings of inadequacy that have been augmented along the way by some of her police colleagues.

Already, though, she's bored with her assignment that's limited to investigating organized crime cases. But as luck would have it, when she orders a search of an old quarry after getting a tip that a big stash of narcotics is at the bottom, something else turns up: The remains of a young girl. Almost immediately, the child is identified as Jessica Collins, who as a seven-year-old disappeared from her home 26 years ago. The case made big-time headlines back then, but no perpetrator was ever found.

It's an uphill battle to get assigned to the cold case, but Erika is determined to get it and keeps dogging her superiors until they cave in - albeit with orders to get it wrapped up as quickly as possible or else.  Erika manages to get the go-ahead to beef up her staff and turns to a couple of former co-workers to help (readers of those first two books will recognize them). But at the git-go, the case looks hopeless; the primary suspect who was cleared of the abduction all those years ago sued the city and won, making it nearly impossible for the officers to approach him again. The missing child's parents have split up, leaving the family in shambles. The original case detective, Amanda Baker, became a pariah, left the force and turned into an alcoholic hermit. And, when another suspect is identified, it turns out he died many years ago and is, obviously, unavailable for comment. As if that weren't enough, roadblocks keep popping up to impede the investigation that may be coming from a source closer to home.

Getting to the truth turns out to be a series of wrong and right turns, stops and starts - and a couple of big surprises. Only two things, in fact, could I count on, the first of which is that the next chapter would be even better than the one I was reading. The second? Any time two or more characters got together, one of them was sure to ask, "Would you like some tea?" Gotta love those Brits!

Dark Water by Robert Bryndza (Bookouture, October 2016); 368 pp.

THE GIRL IN THE ICE

4.5 stars out of 5

After seeing quite a few rave reviews of this book from friends at Goodreads.com, I decided to give it a go myself. But then other books came along, and I pretty much forgot about it until recently. Now that I've finished it, I'm a little annoyed with myself for putting it off for so long. On the plus side, the next in the author's series featuring detective Erika Foster - The Night Stalker - was released earlier this month, and I don't plan to let grass grow under my feet the second time around.

After reading just a few pages of this one, I learned two things: First, it would be a good old-fashioned, hard-boiled detective novel, and second, the author would not (to my great relief) shift chapters from past to present as seems to be the trend du jour among novelists in this genre. The story itself got my attention from the git-go as well: the body of a young woman is found under the ice in a South London pond. Erika, who is still mourning the death of her policeman husband and chastising herself over her actions that possibly caused it, is brought in to help find the killer of the girl in the ice because of her expertise in solving murders.

Of course, nothing comes easy; in part, the investigation is impeded at every turn by the father of the dead girl - a wealthy businessman who rubs elbows with Labour Party heavyweights and looks down on people with Slovak heritages like Erika. Then, three similar murder cases surface - prior killings of three female prostitutes. Adding more fuel to the investigative fire, the sleazy woman Erika cajoled into snitching about a suspect turns up dead as well. By now, Erika is convinced they're all connected. As the investigation proceeds, run-ins with the victim's influential family get Erika kicked off the case; but Erika - a strong woman who won't take no for an answer when she believes she's right - keeps poking around in places her boss doesn't want her to go and suddenly finds herself put on leave.

That brings up another point: All the characters here are well developed, especially Erika. But did I like her? Well, not all that much; she's been around the block more than once and is tough as nails, but her pushiness, especially with her boss, made me pretty sure we'd probably never be close personal friends. Still, she's intriguing - and definitely a good detective - so whether we'd ever share tea and crumpets really doesn't matter a whit. That said, I admit to being a little surprised at how quickly she - clearly an outsider - is accepted by the team she was brought in to oversee.

It wasn't a surprise, though, that being on leave doesn't stop her for long; even though she has no official authority, she keeps digging (with some unofficial help from her team). But the more she learns, the more she angers the killer - who then decides to add the detective to his or her hit list. The game is on; will Erika nail down the killer before the killer nails her? 

Since we all know there's a sequel featuring the good detective, I'm not spoiling anything by saying that she lives to see another book. But what she goes through to get to the end of this one (some of which made me ponder just how much abuse a body can take before giving out) kept me turning the pages as fast as I could. And for those who care about such things, no, I did not guess the killer's identity until the author wanted me to.

All told, it's a very enjoyable police procedural. Now I'm off to get my hands on the next installment.

The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza (Bookouture, February 2016); 396 pp.