In 2001, five Cambridge students, drunk after their final May Ball, buried a youth they had just mown down on a quiet country road. All five were high flyers who have gone on to great heights in their respective careers, despite being blackmailed ever since by someone who has evidence of this illegal internment. That might be the youth himself, since these drunken students, rather incompetently, had failed to dig a very deep grave, and had possibly not noticed that the youth was still alive. And now someone has decided to start killing them; one by one. DI Hope Fenton is assigned to investigate the first death, which is initially just classed as the slightly suspicious overdose of a former rock star. However, she and her team realise that they are dealing with a serial killer and are now in a race to identify the other targets and discover the killer and his motive. This is the first of an intended series featuring DI Hope Fenton and her ex-husband Adam, a senior forensic scientist. A big factor in their breakup was the disappearance eight years ago of their son Noah, and Hope’s belief that he must be dead while Adam, and Noah’s twin Lily, cling to the belief that he will eventually be found alive. Because we are dealing with a number of different crimes the plot is quite intricate, and the whydunnits are varied, as are the different whodunnits. All of the characters are convincingly drawn and the writing quality is high, although I found it a bit over elaborate in places. That attention to detail might come from her other activities. Sam Steele is the pseudonym of Sarah Steele, previously known for historical novels, and she also has had a career in music. Overall, hard to argue with such clever writing. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

As this book is listed as Hope Fenton book 1 of 1, I suspect there may be more? If so, then this is a brilliant introduction to DI Hope Fenton, her team and her family. I’m not a huge fan of crime fiction and definitely not police investigations, and don’t read them very often, so for me to enjoy a book as much as I enjoyed this one, then it must be very good. It’s gripping more or less from the beginning with a good plot and plenty of twists and turns and as it says in the description, very much an edge of your seat thriller. The book starts off with quite a gruesome beginning, which also gives us a clue that at least one character isn’t very happy and may be holding a grudge. Not much further on, and we have our first dead person, murdered? Quite possibly. There are some brilliant characters, both the good and the not so good, it’s fast paced and full of menacing mystery. There’s lots of interesting forensic detail in it too coming from DI Fenton’s husband Adam, who is a forensic scientist and carries out the post mortem’s as well as other forensic investigation. As it mentions in the blurb Hope and her husband Adam are trying to come to terms with their missing son, one of twins, he leaves behind their teenage daughter who also is struggling to accept that Noah is probably dead and they may never find out what happened to him. It’s broken Hope and Adam’s marriage which adds another thread to the narrative. There really is lots to get your teeth into with the tension rarely letting up. Having finished the book, I have my suspicions about something, and so obviously if there is a next book I will definitely have to read it.

A gripping police procedural read! DI Hope Fenton is a complex character who has her own demons . Her son has been missing for eight years . The pressure of this has ended her marriage and she had turned to alcohol and casual sex to try and numb the pain . A privileged clique of friends are being killed one by one and Hope is in charge of the investigation. They are found with a silver spoon in their mouth. Why? Who is the murderer and why are they targeting these specific victims? This is a fast paced read and kept my interest throughout . A five star read for me! Looking forward to the next case for DI Hope Fenton . Thanks to NetGalley and Allison & Busby .