Already finished the fourth book! There is only book five left for me to read as book six isn’t yet out. The last time I was gripped by a series was with Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series. Over the course of reading this series, the characters have wormed their way into my heart and my enjoyment of the stories and of learning the characters ways has been high.

Synopsis (as taken from Amazon Kindle Store) is as follows:

Watching her friend dragged away in handcuffs, Josie couldn’t believe for one second that Gretchen had killed that poor boy. Confession or not, someone else was involved. She would find out who…

When the body of a young student is found on the driveway of a local Denton home, a photograph pinned to his collar, Detective Josie Quinn is first on the scene. The house belongs to Gretchen Palmer, a dedicated member of Josie’s team, missing for the last twenty-four hours.

Working around the clock, Josie is stopped in her tracks when Gretchen hands herself in to the police. She knows that there’s no way Gretchen could ever be a killer, so why would she confess to a murder she didn’t commit?

Digging deep into Gretchen’s secretive life, Josie uncovers a link between the boy, the photograph and a devastating case in Gretchen’s past. But just when Josie thinks she has it all figured out, the bodies of a young couple surface on the other side of town. Can Josie get to the truth in time to save her friend from a life in prison or certain death?

Ability to read – I had no issue with reading this, the language of the book isn’t difficult and I could easily follow along with what was happening. This book did take a little longer for me to get into. I felt that the structure of the first few chapters kept jolting me out and didn’t give me a clear picture of the past or the present. This changed with the more I read but it did cause me slight frustration at the start.

Characterisation – I like what is happening here. I enjoy that each character is getting a chance to shine in a story and still make it interesting to the reader. Having had an in-depth look into Josie’s past with book three, it was interesting to me that Regan picked another character who expose and the story within these pages was very intense and shocked me in ways I didn’t expect. The lives of Josie, Gretchen and Noah have become an important factor to the books and as a reader, I live for the retelling of their pasts. I had never viewed Gretchen as anything other than a police officer with years of experience but I had never taken the time to see what kind of character she was and why she was that way. This book offered me explanations to those two points and took me down into a dark alley as the explanation continued. I felt that I connected more with the characters in this book and got to understand more of how they worked.

None of my theories were true and I think the end result was much darker than anything I had imagined. That’s one factor I’m really loving about Regan’s work, I never correctly theorise what is going to happen.

Visualisation – I had no issue with visualising what was happening in and around the characters involved. After reading the third book, I did google search Denton to get a feel of what it looked like and that helped me to cement what I was imagining in this book. I focus more on the characters who have become clearer with each page, but the setting is becoming clearer the more I learn of Denton – whether that be in the books or in my own research.

Uniqueness – The plot didn’t feel like a book, it felt more like I was watching a film or television programme in this intensity and the detail of what was happening. I could clearly see it all unfold in my minds eye. I rave so much about this book series because I haven’t yet correctly guessed the ending. I read a lot of Detective books and so it has become incredibly easy for me to accurately predict what is going to happen. I love that I don’t get bored with this, that the chase is still on and that I can theorise on what is going to happen without knowing what will happen. I love the element of surprise and shock that I feel when the end is revealed and I haven’t guessed correctly. It reminds me that there is still magic to be read.

Star Rating – ★★★★