Dark Game and Deep Fear, by Rachel Lynch
A two-for-one special
Sometime in October, my wife Nikki popped out shopping and offered to grab me some more ‘random books’ from a charity shop. I thought it was a great idea - what better way to ensure that I’m not in some way unconsciously selecting or filtering them. I reminded her of the brief - “don’t look for books you think I’ll like, or that you’ll like. Just grab anything at random.”
So, she came home with 2 books from the same author. I’m not alone in seeing the problem there, am I? Very nice of her though. Thanks Nikki x
Anyway - let’s start by judging these by their cover:
Moody, dark and atmospheric, that’s the first thing jumping out at me. We’ve got a single female in an otherwise bare and cold looking scene. It might not show in the photo, but the lady is in red in both covers. I’m guessing she’s DI Kelly Porter. Or is it Di Kelly Porter? It’s in all caps, so hard to tell if she’s a detective, or just called Diane. And we only see her back. Maybe she’s on the run, or someone who keeps her identity secret. Deep Fear shows her by a traditional british parish church, so I’m thinking set in the UK.
I’m expecting danger, crime, probably abductions and deaths. And this good old Diane / Detective lady is going to sort it all out. Hopefully. Or die trying. But I doubt that.
I also have to say, I really love the fact that the titles look so alike. 2 x 4 letters, twice. Very appealing. If this is part of a series, Rachel Lynch is setting up a huge challenge to keep that going. It’s definitely got limited mileage.
DAMP SOIL
DEAD KILL
DOOR BELL
I’m out. This is why I’m not in marketing I guess.
So, how was it?
Cor… that was fun!!
Kelly is indeed a detective, with the Cumbrian Police (so I was right on that one too). I always love how a first chapter can give you so much, in the first 8 pages. We learn that her father was also a detective with the Cumbrian Police,and is now dead. We learn that Kelly is single and a bit of a hot mess, still carrying the trauma and nightmares from past policing situations that had clearly endangered her life considerably. That is part of why Kelly has left the Met Police, and moved back to Cumbria. She’s 36, attractive and desirable, which is clearly given away by the fact that she’s having casual sex by page 3.
I try and always resist the urge to get too carried away with a blow by blow of the story because with a crime / police novel, I’d be greatly diminishing the reasons to read it.
Kelly becomes intrigued with an old cold case, the abduction of a 10 year old girl, Lottie Davies, who was found brutally murdered. The force seem to have given up on the case. Beside that, Kelly also investigates some other local cases, and as they usually do, they all turn out to be connected, at least to some extent. There’s a local prostitution ring, a network of slightly dodgy hotels and businesses, people trafficking, a drugs trade - it all blends into a wide picture of criminality.
And Kelly, by taking the lead in investigating it finds herself attracting a lot of local attention and bringing herself and her family into danger. Which from the sounds of it, seems to happen to her quite a lot.
It’s certainly a recurring theme in both books. Taking huge personal risks, putting herself in harms way and inciting a lot of personal vendetta. Generally displaying a complete absence of work-life balance. I suppose detectives don’t get to just leave work at the office and forget about it. A bit like us book reviewers… it’s the price of vocation. I feel your pain Kelly.
All joking aside though - these books are excellent. Exciting, fast paced and charming. DI Porter is a fantastic lead character, and a kick-ass strong female role model. I highly recommend it, and I will be very keen to read more of these.
Oh, it also only took literally 1 page into this book to smash my hopes on the titles for the rest of the series. Some blinders in there though.
There you go. An enthusiastic double thumbs up for Rachel Lynch.
And if you’d like my copy, just drop me a comment and I’ll happily send it to you.