Perfect Death (DI Callanach#3) by Helen Fields @AvonBooks @Helen_Fields #PerfectDeath

 

Source: Netgalley

Publication: 25 January from Avon Books

 

There’s no easy way to die…

Unknown to DI Luc Callanach and the newly promoted DCI Ava Turner, a serial killer has Edinburgh firmly in his grip. The killer is taking his victims in the coldest, most calculating way possible – engineering slow and painful deaths by poison, with his victims entirely unaware of the drugs flooding their bloodstream until it’s too late.

But how do you catch a killer who hides in the shadows? A killer whose pleasure comes from watching pain from afar? Faced with their most difficult case yet, Callanach and Turner soon realise they face a seemingly impossible task….

 

D.I.Luc Callanach has become such a welcome addition to the Scottish detective crime canon that when a new Callanach and Turner is unleashed I jump at the bit to read it. Though each book (Perfect Remains; Perfect Prey) can easily be read as a stand-alone, it makes more sense of the relationships if they are read seriatim.

The naked body of a young woman is found high on Arthur’s Seat, and it looks as though she died from hypothermia. Ava Turner and Luc Callanach are both finding it difficult to settle into their new relationship, that of boss and subordinate and that’s really not going to help when things get much more complicated later on.

Their personal relationship will become even more complex when Luc’s estranged mother appears on the scene and the strain that already exists between them with reach breaking point when Turner begins to investigate another case ‘off the books’, without telling Callanach what’s going on.

As if Luc doesn’t have enough going on in his personal life to keep him fully occupied, it soon transpires that there is a devious serial killer on the loose. This one does not hang about to watch his victims die, which makes him all the harder to catch and the poison he uses isn’t always easy to detect.

Helen Fields has a dark and twisted mind which does not at all flinch from going into some gruesome details and her fertile imagination is a great place from which clever murders and nefarious deeds spring.

I do worry about Ava Turner, though. She’s going to have to watch herself if she wants to keep her shiny new job.

These are books that you want to read in one sitting because they grip you and won’t let go until you have finished and this one certainly did not disappoint. I really enjoyed too the way that the relationship between Luc and Lively is developing, adding some welcome light to the darkness. Perfect Death hits the ground running and never lets up.

Amazon                                           Waterstones

 

About Helen Fields

Helen Fields’ first love was drama and music. From a very young age she spent all her free time acting and singing until law captured her attention as a career path. She studied law at the University of East Anglia, then went on to the Inns of Court School of Law in London.

After completing her pupillage, she joined chambers in Middle Temple where she practised criminal and family law for thirteen years. Undertaking cases that ranged from Children Act proceedings and domestic violence injunctions, to large scale drug importation and murder, Helen spent years working with the police, CPS, Social Services, expert witnesses and in Courts Martials.

After her second child was born, Helen left the Bar. Together with her husband David, she went on to run Wailing Banshee Ltd, a film production company, acting as script writer and producer.

Helen self-published two fantasy books as a way of testing herself and her writing abilities. She enjoyed the creative process so much that she began writing in a much more disciplined way, and decided to move into the traditional publishing arena through an agent.

The Perfect series is set in Scotland, where Helen feels most at one with the world. Edinburgh and San Francisco are her two favourite cities, and she travels whenever she can.

Beyond writing, she has a passion for theatre and cinema, often boring friends and family with lengthy reviews and critiques. Taking her cue from her children, she has recently taken up karate and indoor sky diving. Helen and her husband now live in Hampshire with their three children and two dogs.

You can follow Helen on @Helen_Fields