Review: Perfect Crime (D.I. Callanach #5) by Helen Fields

Print Length: 400 pages

Publisher: Avon (April 18, 2019)

From Goodreads.com: Your darkest moment is your most vulnerable…

Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counsellor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed…

As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be.

Little do Callanach and Turner know how close their perpetrator is as, across Edinburgh, a violent and psychopathic killer gains more confidence with every life he takes…

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Although this is book number five in the series, this is only the second that I have read. And, it may be the last. There is just something about these books that make them hard to get into, and stay interested in. Its a shame because the author does have a strong writing style that makes it easy to visualize what is going on, but there are times when its just too much. As interesting as the concept was, the execution was more depressing than entertaining. I can certainly understand why the author would choose to show a suicidal person's mindset, but it doesn't make for the most entertaining of reads. Even the surprising twist at the end didn't make up for what we had to slog through to get there. I feel with another round of editing, there could have been more things cut from the final product that would have sped things along without taking away from the overall story.

Overall, I'm sure this novel (and series) will appeal to those who enjoy well written police procedural novels set in the UK. I just don't think they are for me.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                                   Perfect Crime  is available from Amazon.com