See No Evil by David Fennell

 

The bodies of two men are discovered in a park. One of the men has been mutilated, including having his eyes cut out. DI Grace Archer and her colleagues are tasked with investigating. As other bodies with similar mutilations appear the team wonder if they have a serial killer and are the murders linked to a local cult.

A week ago I read The Art Of Death which is the first novel by David Fennell and enjoyed it so much I moved See No Evil straight to the top of my TBR pile. I was so pleased to see the return of DI Grace Archer, along with her partner DS Harry Quinn, grandfather Jake, analyst Klara and even her boss DCI Clare Pierce.

The novel is set three months after the events in The Art Of Death and Grace is just returning to work after recuperating. She still has to deal with hostility from some of her colleagues but it is pleasing to see that her relationship with her immediate boss is on a better footing.

This time around we have a more controlled story, however the murders are no less gruesome. Links to a possible religious cult dial up the creepiness a notch, particularly when we are introduced to the leader of the cult. Aaron Cronin appears to have slavish devotion from the other members of the cult and no empathy at all.

We get more information on Grace's background as the story progresses and it is good to see Klara and Quinn having a greater voice in this novel. Grace is also winning round some of her colleagues, however she is warned that someone within the Met is watching her and this raises doubts about who she can trust.

To make things more difficult for Grace she discovers that the drug lord who ordered her fathers murder, Frankie "Snow" White, is to be released from prison and has a vendetta against Grace. This certainly increases the menace (as if a possible serial killer isn't enough) and offers so much potential for future books in the series. The thought of a detective and a crime lord dancing around each other, hating one another but tolerating each other because of the mutual benefits is appealing.

I did manage to figure out who was responsible about halfway through but thanks to a few red herrings from David Fennell I had no idea as to why so the big reveal was still as much of a surprise and certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment. Roll on the next book in the series.