'It was the news they had all been dreading, confirmation of a fourth victim.'When the body of a young woman is found by a Northumberland railway line, it's a baptism of fire for the Murder Investigation Team's newest detective duo: DCI David Stone and DS Frankie Oliver.
The case is tough by anyone's standards, but Stone is convinced that there's a leak in his team - someone is giving the killer a head start on the investigation. Until he finds out who, Stone can only trust his partner.
But Frankie is struggling with her own past. And she isn't the only one being driven by a personal vendetta. The killer is targeting these women for a reason. And his next target is close to home...
I'd like to thank Alainna at Orion Books for inviting me to be a part of this blog tour and for my copy of The Insider which I received to review via NetGalley.
The Insider is the second book in the Stone and Oliver series and continues on from where we last left them in The Lost, which I have also just read but ran out of time to write a review so will try and do that this evening. Although this is a series you don't have to read The Lost first beforehand as each book is a standalone and there are enough recaps, without spoiling the first book, throughout this one for you to catch up with the characters.
David Stone has been promoted and transferred to the Murder Investigation Team (MIT) but the one proviso he has made when accepting the job is that he brings Frankie Oliver with him. It's unusual for a new boss to take over in the middle of a murder case but that's the position David Stone finds himself when DCI Sharpe decides to resign in the middle of an unsolved serial murder case. David and Frankie find themselves thrown in the deep end when another body is discovered, a potential fourth victim has been found, with similarities to the previous murders although the murderer seems to be mocking them as the body has been staged unlike the other victims.
As well as getting into the nitty gritty of the investigation to find the killer and stop any further deaths, we also get snippets of the back stories of David and Frankie which gives us more of an insight into who they are as people and what makes them tick. Why they are the way they are which shows the human and emotional side to their characters, how involved they get with their cases wanting to bring resolution and justice for the victims and their families but also how each case affects them personally and not just as police officers.
At times I did feel that there maybe was a little too much use of police acronyms, some of which I'd not heard of before, but at the same time it gave the story its authenticity as I do know a few police personnel in real life and they do use a lot of jargons rather than full words/descriptions especially when in the middle of a case. This is only a minor point for me and didn't in any way deter me from enjoying, which seems to be the wrong thing to say whilst reading about a murder, this fantastic story.
I have never been to the Northumberland area myself but Mari Hannah's descriptive writing really brought the landscape to life for me, I almost felt like I was there alongside them as one of the team seeing everything through their eyes. I know that one of Mari Hannah's previous series has already been optioned as a TV series but I would SO like to see Stone and Oliver on my screen although I'm not quite sure which actors could play them.
I'm loving the partnership between Stone and Oliver, they are the perfect police duo who complement one another so well, so cannot wait to see what Mari Hannah has in store for them in the next installment The Scandal which is published next March... and the way this year has flown by publication day will be here before we know it!
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