Murder Ring by Leigh Russell

Murder Ring by Leigh Russell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - <7 hours

Pages - 320

Publisher - No Exit Press

Blurb from Goodreads

Hearing footsteps pounding along the street behind him he glanced back, fleetingly worried, then laughed because the street was deserted. All the same, he felt uneasy. Everything looked different in the dark. Then he heard more footsteps approaching, and a hoarse voice called out. Turning his head, he made out a figure hovering in the shadows and as it raised one arm, the barrel of a gun glinted in the moonlight… The dead body of unassuming David Lester is discovered in a dark side-street, and DI Geraldine Steel is plunged into another murder investigation. The clues mount up along with the suspects, but with the death of another man in inexplicable circumstances, the case becomes increasingly complex. As Geraldine investigates the seemingly unrelated crimes, she makes a shocking discovery about her birth mother.


My review

A business man is killed, shot to death and robbed, another body soon turns up and DI Geraldine Steel is on the case. With a new boss and a list of suspects Steel has her work cut out for her, dealing with personal issues and a past that won't go away whilst making sure the team focuses on catching the right guy.

Steel has a lot of issues going on in her personal life, however she does not allow this to cloud her judgment and pushes her colleagues to fully investigate all suspects and evidence. Her new boss has a lot to prove and his character is quite annoying at times as is her colleague Sam who is quick to make assumptions and judge. The pace of the story is relatively fast, a murder occurs within the prologue and the investigation kicks off immediately. We delve into Steels personal life as she has some closure on issues from previous books which opens up a potentially new can of worms. Sorry I know that is a bit vague but I don't do spoiler reviews and feel this needs to have a wee sentence to highlight it is addressed for fans of the previous books.

This is a busy wee book, I have read one or two of this series and whilst you could get away with reading this as a standalone I would suggest reading the others as you get the full picture of current events & characters. The chapters are short & frequent, not everyone will enjoy this style but I personally love it. If you are busy and caught up with life you can sneak in chapters throughout the day, I read this in one sitting though, the old just one more chapter happened. There are twists and turns along the way, themes covering spouse abuse, family secrets, lies, betrayal and jealousy are only a few that are covered. Russell cleverly creates a tale of murder, police investigation and personal issues whilst trying to pursue the truth, uphold the law and fling in some surprises to keep the reader on their toes.

I have previously enjoyed the Steel serious but preferred the Paterson ones, this book I really enjoyed hence firing through it. I look forward to the next in this series and think I will get the ones I have missed so far. 4/5 for me this time, thanks to RealReaders for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Murder ring will be available for purchase from 26/05/16 from all good retailers, published by No Exit Press.

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