Damaged by Martina Cole

Damaged by Martina Cole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 357

Publisher - Headline

Source - Borrowed from a friend

Blurb from Goodreads

A serial killer is in town and the race is on for DCI Kate Burrows. Stop the killer before more innocent girls die...

Damaged is the explosive new novel from Sunday Times No.1 bestseller, Martina Cole, and sees the return of her iconic heroine DCI Kate Burrows. The 'undisputed queen of crime writing' (Guardian) and the biggest selling female crime writer in the UK, Martina's unique, powerful storytelling includes Dangerous Lady, The Ladykiller, Betrayal and many more.

When the bodies of missing schoolgirls start turning up, former DCI Kate Burrows is dragged out of retirement.

A new Grantley serial killer is in town and DCI Annie Carr turns to Kate for help. She welcomes the distraction from her home life with former gangster, Patrick Kelly, whose long lost son has turned up out of the blue, bringing trouble with him.

It soon becomes clear the killer is on their doorstep and as the body count grows, Kate and Annie face a race against the clock.

But they have no real leads ... and there's more to these murders than meets the eye. Can Kate take the killer down before another schoolgirl dies?



My Review

DCI Kate Burrows is back! Well she is retired but agrees to come in and help with a serial killer who is targeting school girls, torturing them horrifically before murdering them. Kate is happy to have a distraction as things at home have been royally shaken up when Patrick gets a blast from the past that shakes up his and Kate's happy wee home.

I loved Cole's earlier books, particularly Burrows and the whole taboo of a copper hooking up with a criminal. Now Burrows is out of the police business and Pat is mostly retired things are going well when Pat has a chap claiming to be his son. Pat is shrewd and suspicious of course but the idea of a family brings it's own happiness and problems.

The book is really split into three, the investigation such as it is, the dilemma of the new family showing up and the nightmare wife who comes with it and of course wee bits from the killer. I did enjoy catching up with Kate and Patrick and seeing how they are now after so many years. The whole dynamics of their lives changing and how they cope with it, particularly Kate. There are a few surprises along the way and I have always found Cole's writing easy to slide into. I did notice Kate used darling a lot, I think four times in the space of a handful of sentences but that is just a wee gripe. I would have liked two aspects of the story to have a lot more exploration but I cannot go into them without potential spoilers and I never do spoiler reviews.

Overall I did enjoy it, I have read plenty of her books before and will read her again. I still find her older books to be much stronger that the newer ones seem to have a little something missing from. However I do enjoy her writing, 3.5 for me this time. If you enjoy Cole's writing I think you will enjoy this and for hardcore fans you will enjoy catching up with Kate and Patrick!

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