Books Read: Race to the Kill by Helen Cadbury

It is the middle of a long night shift for PC Sean Denton and his partner PC Gavin Wentworth when they are approached by a dishevelled-looking woman desperate that they follow her. She leads them to the old Chasebridge High School where they find the dead body of a Syrian refugee. The investigation which points to the neighbouring greyhound stadium finds Denton caught up in a world of immigration, drugs and sexual abuse, and one in which his private life becomes increasingly entwined.

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I've had a copy of Helen Cadbury's debut novel on my Kindle for several years as I bought a copy shortly after it was published but like so many other book lovers the complication of too many books to chose from has meant I still haven't managed to find the time to read it.  However, when I was asked to be a part of this memorial blog tour for Helen Cadbury I didn't hesitate to say yes despite not having read the previous two books in the series, To Catch a Rabbit and Bones in the Nest.

A routine call out for PC Sean Denton and his partner Gav turns out to be less than routine when they turn up at the the abandoned school and discovery a homeless man beaten to death and another one hiding for his life. But investigations are not going to be easy trying to track down the other homeless people who were squatters there who are potential witnesses as the police are not exactly their favourite people.  And even when taken off the case to investigate a missing witness from a previous case, Sean is unable to stop investigating...

At the same time there's a parallel storyline running featuring a young woman Sarah who is living in a caravan at the local greyhound course, next to the abandoned school, in exchange for working for the owners.  From the start it's clear that this is a means to an end for her and she is definitely wary of people, especially men, she comes into contact with on a day-to-day basis, who is she hiding from, what is her story and how is this related to the murder next door?

Despite having not read the previous two books in the series I didn't feel at a disadvantage as there was enough snippets of Sean's back story to see that he has already worked his way up from a PCSO to a PC despite having to overcome being dyslexic to fill in reports, and now he was working towards taking his exams to be a DC.  It was clear that Sean was determined to prove himself good at his job to his superiors and to himself despite his upbringing and the complicated relationship he had with his father and the discovery of a half-sister Chloe he never knew about.  Chloe was a real breath of fresh air, she wanted to look after those in her life and protect Melissa, a young girl in care that she comes into contact with.

Race to the Kill was a fantastic read from start to finish as Helen Cadbury weaved her magic to bring the two seemingly unrelated investigations, and a cast full of dodgy characters, together until the clues started to appear one by one and it all began to make sense until its dramatic conclusion.  My one consolation having now finished this book is that at least I still have the first two stories from Helen to savour and enjoy but I'm just sad that we'll not get to see how things turn out for Sean, both personally and professionally. 

Helen Cadbury was a bright light in the crime community who I had the pleasure to meet in person last year at Crimefest where she saw I was standing alone and came over to me and introduced herself.  She was a warm, friendly person and made me, and everyone she came into contact with, feel at ease.  RIP Helen, you will be sadly missed xxx