Another excellent read in this superb crime series. I just love this series so much. It’s like meeting back up with old friend. A fantastic crime thriller series,

I had to take a step away from doing the review straight away as I knew I’d just be tempted to say “Brilliant” and leave it at that. As it is, I’m not gonna give a plot synopsis as you get enough of those. Suffice it to say that Helen Fields is fast becoming a favourite of mine! Thankyou Sally, Cornmarket Lancaster shop for the recommendation. The main characters are equally well rounded and likeable in their dysfunctional lives for you to root for them, but still cringe at their choices. I seriously want all good things to happen to these two! Good Lord, I loved this book! I can’t enthuse enough. It was my perfect mix of great storytelling, tricksy plotting and enough gore to make you go “bleurghhhhh”

DI's Callanach and Turner are fast becoming my favourite crime fighting duo. I loved Helen Fieldings first book Perfect Remains but her second novel Perfect Prey is crammed full of twists and turns, I loved the character's good and bad and had to read at every available opportunity. I always read an authors second book with a little trepidation, will it be as good as the first? I need not have worried as Helen has surpassed herself and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

3.5 stars A young man is murdered in front of a crowd of thousands, though no one sees the killer. A nurse is brutally murdered in her own home. DI Luc Callanach and DI Ava Turner soon find that their separate cases are linked. It appears the murderer is announcing their next victim and as more murders occur Luc and Ava are on a race to decipher the clues before the next person is killed. This is not a slow build novel. It opens with an unusual and somewhat barbaric murder at a music festival and soon more bodies are piling up. The murders are gruesome, the kind nature of the victims making the reader perhaps feel even more sorry for them that they met such untimely and grisly ends. The characters are beginning to develop more in this novel. There are flashes of humour from Ava Turner, which lighten the tone to just the right amount. The more I read of the novel, the more I liked Ava. Luc still has his issues, tied over from an incident from his past whilst working at Interpol. This lead him to move to Scotland and has had a somewhat physical effect on him. I’m going to sound very unsympathetic but his issues began to grate on me again, as they did with the first book. It seemed as if the issue was a little laboured. I was glad to see that a little peccadillo of his from the last novel didn’t emerge in this one. I was able to be a little bit more sympathetic towards him as a result. (I know this sounds a little vague but I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the story). Despite my issues with Luc I still enjoyed the story. The dark web features heavily and it made the story feel all the more oppressive and gritty (in a good way) for it. It also made me glad that I really don’t know much about the dark web! The motive for the murders was dealt with in a clever way. I also love the setting of Edinburgh. The story, and back stories kept me engaged, so much so that I went to check my bookshelves to see if I had the next book in the series. An entertaining, dark, interesting second installment in the Callanach series. I look forward to reading more Callanach and Turner stories in the future.

This is the second in the DI Callanach series and I was looking forward to this so much after reading the first one. I was NOT disappointed. A series of murders are rocking Edinburgh with both their brutality and the completely different MOs making it look as though there could easily be 4 murderers at large, each trying to outdo the other. Couple this with a cyber-crime unit from Scotland Yard descending on Police Scotland and life is more than usually chaotic for our old friends DI Ava Turner and Luc Callanach. Helen Fields brings a great blend of both personal anecdote from the characters and the grotesque, often disturbing, machinations behind murder. The story arc is judged excellently and there is a presumption that you already know the history of the main protagonists but enough background detail is given to flash out the characters for the first time reader. Just enough to not spoil it for people following this series of books, this is a boon as so many authors now spend half the book telling you things you already know. The descriptions of the crime scenes are vivid and some may see these as a detriment. I see it as a logical progression in crime story telling and it only follows on from the sudden explosion of Scandi Noir on our screens and bookshelves. The difference being the crime itself and the subsequent body display are there to serve to tell us of the murderers mindset and choices regarding the act itself and what it means to them - not just for shock and awe. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and am somewhat trepidatiously awaiting the third - can Ms Fields keep the momentum up? I sincerely hope so!