Perfect Death by Helen Fields

Perfect Death by Helen Sarah Fields
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 2 days

Pages - 448

Publisher - Avon

Source - Gifted from a fellow bookworm

Blurb from Goodreads

There’s no easy way to die…

Unknown to DI Luc Callanach and the newly promoted DCI Ava Turner, a serial killer has Edinburgh firmly in his grip. The killer is taking his victims in the coldest, most calculating way possible – engineering slow and painful deaths by poison, with his victims entirely unaware of the drugs flooding their bloodstream until it’s too late.

But how do you catch a killer who hides in the shadows? A killer whose pleasure comes from watching pain from afar? Faced with their most difficult case yet, Callanach and Turner soon realise they face a seemingly impossible task…


My Review

How do you catch a killer when you aren't even sure there is a murder? That is the problem faced by Luc Callanach and newly promoted Ava Turner. Throw into the mix a former respected colleague has been found dead, by his own hand, the team are thrown for six. When it becomes apparent they have a serial killer loose, Callanach is on the case, Turner is under pressure from her boss who isn't convinced they have a serial killer and distracted and on the case of her former boss's death Turner is pulled in many directions and making very risky decisions.

Ooooh a serial killer, stalking his victims and they have no idea they are in any danger. A killer in plain sight, the most dangerous - looks benign, calculating, cold and everything for their own gratification. There is so so much going on in this book, Turner and Callanach's relationship is under strain, she has been promoted so has to deal with things differently, she now has more bureaucratic nonsense to deal with. The shock and loss of someone she loved and respected so much, there is no way he would take his own life is there? Torn and focused on that she ends up in some very difficult and dangerous situations, made worse by not wanting to risk anyone else.

The killer himself is one that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand because of how easily he infiltrates lives, the impacts he has and how easily he can take life. Not knowing what drives him either but how he manages to flit in and out without causing alarm ooft, one of the best and freakiest killers brought to life from the pages I think. The "normality" he can portray, so non threatening I think it was the coldness and predatory behaviours that actually made my blood run cold rather than the acts he committed. I know how bad that sounds, murder is heinous and one of the worst offenses we can do to another living being but when you read the book you will know what I mean. Absolute evil, Fields is genius in her creation in this one and if all that isn't enough for you we also have the interaction and relationships with the officers, work force, families - it has so much going on but all relevant and had life not got in the way (you know socialising, talking to people, not locking oneself away in a room to read) I would have read this most likely in one sitting. I look forward to the next in the series 4.5/5 for me this time.

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