Thank you Netgalley, #partner, for the advanced copy of Lethal Vengeance in exchange for my honest review. I purchased the audiobook for my own collection.
Publisher: Raven Street Publishing / Raven Street Publishing
Published: February 8, 2024
Summary:
The man lay on his front, his arms and legs bound and pulled up with a rope connecting the two. His head was arched back, so he faced the curtains, and there was masking tape over his mouth. Erika gingerly reached out and checked his pulse.
Yep. Dead all right.
When Detective Erika Foster finds politician Neville Lomas naked, hog-tied, and dead in his own bed, skittish higher-ups at the Met quickly rule the death from natural causes. Case closed . . . until two months later when a well-known casting director and a star footballer are found murdered and tied with the same knots. The Met can no longer ignore what’s staring them in the face: there’s a serial killer loose in London, and they’re out to settle a score.
As Erika and her team investigate, things take a strange turn as CCTV footage turns up five female suspects . . . and they’re all identical.
In the hunt to identify the women, Erika is outpaced at every turn by an elusive sex worker with dirt on enough powerful men to make the Met’s top brass nervous – and desperate.
As time ticks away until the killer strikes again, it’s up to Erika to untangle the web of evidence and answer the critical questions: What ties the victims together, who else is caught up in this scandal, and how far are the higher-ups willing to go to protect their own?
Gripping, tense and impossible to put down, Lethal Vengeance will have you on the edge of your seat, racing to the final dramatic moment.
My thoughts:
This is the 8th book in Robert Bryndza’s Erika Foster series and one of my all-time favorite series! I’m so glad he is back to writing this series…he had taken a break to start the Kate Marshall series, which I also enjoy but my heart really belongs to Erika Foster!
This one starts with a bang and doesn’t let up, which is true to form with this author and I love it! As with all his books, it’s dark and gruesome and keeps you on the edge of your seat most of the time. This is such a good police procedural series from the way the story is told to the amazing character development. I love that while most of the story is told from Erika’s point of view, we also get chapters here and there from her colleagues as well as from the guilty party, which is always my favorite perspective to get because while we don’t know who it is until the end, it’s always so creepy hearing their thoughts. I love finding out what motivates them!
I have loved Erika since the start of this series. She is fierce and opinionated and doesn’t always play by the rules, especially if it means she’ll solve the case. But more importantly, I love that over the course of the series, we have seen her age. As I get older, I find I enjoy reading more mature characters, so seeing Erika at age 50, own her age is awesome. We see in this installment that while she can certainly still do her job, she also owns up to her flaws – she’s what she considers a “dinosaur” compared to some of the younger team and it’s this vulnerability that makes her so real and relatable – at least to me!
As is always the case, we get an original crime with each installment and this one was no exception! I found the cat and mouse game to keep me glued to the book. Once I started it, I had a hard time putting it down – it’s just such an addictive, captivating story, despite how gruesome and dark it is.
Audio thoughts:
It just seemed fitting that I listen to this book as I had listened to the entire series up to now. I was thrilled to see that Jan Cramer was back to narrate – she had been the narrator for all 7 books prior and I am such a big believer in having the same narrator in a series whenever possible. No matter how long it is since I’ve last listened to a book in this series, having Jan as a narrator makes it feel like yesterday because she’s that consistent with her voices! This story really just came alive with her narration, really making it such a treat to listen to!
Books in this series:
- The Girl in the Ice
- The Night Stalker
- Dark Water
- Last Breath
- Cold Blood
- Deadly Secrets
- Fatal Witness
- Lethal Vengeance
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