Review: Broken Souls by Patricia Gibney

Title: Broken Souls

Author: Patricia Gibney

Series: D.I. Lottie Parker, #7

Published: October 2019, Bookouture

Format: ARC E-copy, 446 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

‘She shivered,
though the kitchen was warm. Icicles of foreboding trickled down her
spine. With trembling hands she whipped back her hair at the nape of her
neck. As she turned away from the window, she missed the shadow passing
by.’

One dark winter’s morning, bride-to-be Cara Dunne is
found hanging in her home, dressed in her wedding dress, with a lock of
hair removed. Detective Lottie Parker is first on the scene. Looking at
Cara’s bruised and battered body, she wonders who could have hated her
enough to kill her at the happiest time of her life.

The case
takes a darker turn that afternoon with another shocking discovery – the
broken body of a second young woman, pushed from the roof of the
hospital where she worked. Fiona Heffernan was also due to be married,
and her body is clad in a wedding dress, a lock of her hair cut off.

The
killings seem so personal that Lottie is convinced the girls have been
killed by someone they knew. When she goes to break the news to Fiona’s
family, she’s on the alert for anything suspicious. But then she makes a
discovery that causes her blood to run cold – Fiona’s eight-year-old
daughter Lily didn’t return home from her dance recital that afternoon.
Terrified that Lily will be the next victim of a twisted and dangerous
individual, Lottie takes the case into her own hands, risking her life
when she comes face-to-face with the killer…

If you love
Karin Slaughter, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine, you’ll be hooked by
this heart-stopping thriller from Patricia Gibney. Broken Souls will keep you guessing until the very last page!

My thoughts: This
is the 7th book in Patricia Gibney’s Detective Lottie Parker series and I think it might have been the strongest book in the series yet. As much as I adore this series, I feel the character development has taken a bit of a back seat, but not here…it definitely moves forward in this latest installment and I loved it!

As is usually the case, this book starts fast and furious, which makes it such an addicting read. And one of my favorite aspects is that we hear from the murderer, though we aren’t quite privy to their identity until later on…but still, I always love when author’s give us this inside look into a killer’s mind – it makes the story just the little bit more chilling. There are many suspects to the case that the team is working on and I admit I had no clue who was the guilty party…so many of the characters we meet were despicable and really could have been the “bad” guy that I had a hard time deciding who really did it.

I’ve always been a fan of DI Lottie Parker – she’s strong and has a lot on her plate in her personal life, and I liked that she really kept it together here. A lot of things were thrown at here in this book that would have had the old Lottie running for booze or pills but she kept a clear head for the most part and worked her way through it. I will say that I wasn’t happy with one particular development but I am curious to see how it plays out in the next book…

Books in this series:    

1. The Missing Ones
2. The Stolen Girls
3. The Lost Child
4. No Safe Place 
5. Tell Nobody 
6. Final Betrayal 
7. Broken Souls