Having read "Don't Make A Sound" last year and really enjoyed, I was looking forward to the next in the DS Nathan Cody series "Your Deepest Fear". Although this can be read as a standalone without any problems, it would probably be best to read at least one of the previous three, as you'll understand Cody so much more personally. You'll also appreciate how he has ended up on the brink of a mental breakdown, hellbent on retribution. Either way the author covers just the right amount of back story to refresh the reader regarding past events, without having to trawl through pages of repeated information.
"A message on Sara Prior's phone contains the last words she will ever hear from her husband. Racing to find him, she discovers he has been brutally murdered.
While the police struggle to uncover evidence around this shocking crime, it becomes clear that Sara is no ordinary bereaved wife. And she is not the sort of woman to let things lie. Following a hidden clue in her husband's last desperate phone-call, Sara follows the trail to the house of the last person she'd expect . . .
Meanwhile DS Nathan Cody finds himself drawn into the darkest and most twisted case of his career. And this time things are about to get very very personal...."
The narrative is told from Sara and Cody's part in the story and I enjoyed how the two eventually came together in a very tense and exciting denouement. I was a little disappointed and didn't feel it fit with their described persona, as to how one of the characters that was involved in the story was revealed to have played a part in the denouement but that's just my opinion. However, the execution of the conclusion was expertly done and I was sitting on tenterhooks as it unfolded. The baddie 'Waldo' was a really frightening character and a very inventive one. In fact all of the characters had depth and I particularly liked Sara and saw her at one point a potential main protagonist for a separate series.
I did worry that the story would take Cody down the path of woeful self destruction and in a way it did but not in a run of the mill 'poor me' way. It was thoroughly understandable and justifiable and played an important part regarding the people involved in one of his earlier undercover cases, when he was brutally tortured and witnessed a sadistic and horrendous murder.
This is a quite a dark and shocking cat and mouse thriller and if you have a fear of clowns this may well not be for you. I thought it a brilliant read - although not quite up to the standards of "Don't Make A Sound" - but David Jackson is a fabulous and imaginative author and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend "Your Deepest Fear" to all crime readers.
4 stars
"A message on Sara Prior's phone contains the last words she will ever hear from her husband. Racing to find him, she discovers he has been brutally murdered.
While the police struggle to uncover evidence around this shocking crime, it becomes clear that Sara is no ordinary bereaved wife. And she is not the sort of woman to let things lie. Following a hidden clue in her husband's last desperate phone-call, Sara follows the trail to the house of the last person she'd expect . . .
Meanwhile DS Nathan Cody finds himself drawn into the darkest and most twisted case of his career. And this time things are about to get very very personal...."
The narrative is told from Sara and Cody's part in the story and I enjoyed how the two eventually came together in a very tense and exciting denouement. I was a little disappointed and didn't feel it fit with their described persona, as to how one of the characters that was involved in the story was revealed to have played a part in the denouement but that's just my opinion. However, the execution of the conclusion was expertly done and I was sitting on tenterhooks as it unfolded. The baddie 'Waldo' was a really frightening character and a very inventive one. In fact all of the characters had depth and I particularly liked Sara and saw her at one point a potential main protagonist for a separate series.
I did worry that the story would take Cody down the path of woeful self destruction and in a way it did but not in a run of the mill 'poor me' way. It was thoroughly understandable and justifiable and played an important part regarding the people involved in one of his earlier undercover cases, when he was brutally tortured and witnessed a sadistic and horrendous murder.
This is a quite a dark and shocking cat and mouse thriller and if you have a fear of clowns this may well not be for you. I thought it a brilliant read - although not quite up to the standards of "Don't Make A Sound" - but David Jackson is a fabulous and imaginative author and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend "Your Deepest Fear" to all crime readers.
4 stars