Fatal Act

A glamorous young TV soap star dies in a car crash.  Returning for her sixth case, Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel is baffled as the driver of the second vehicle miraculously survives, and vanishes.  Another young actress is murdered and, once again, the killer mysteriously disappears.  Geraldine realises she is on the case of a serial killer who leaves no clues.

 This is a skillfully-plotted novel that presents a most intriguing and well executed mystery, which takes the reader through the back streets and busy thoroughfares of modern-day London.

 Geraldine is a woman who knows her own mind, and a likeable character.  She’s got a back story which makes her a more three-dimensional character if you’ve read the rest of the series, but unlike other novels in a well-established series this one can be approached as a stand-alone novel.  There is one scene, however, that doesn’t make much sense if you’ve not read either the prior Geraldine Steel novels or the spin off series featuring Ian Paterson. Geraldine meets her old friend and ex colleague Paterson, who has moved away from London and is now busy starring in his own series of crime novels, and as they catch up over a drink she knows something is bothering him but she – and the reader – never finds out what.  I guess you have to go read the Ian Paterson novels to discover what’s weighing on his mind.  If you haven’t, you might be left wondering why this scene is in the novel.

 All in all, though, an engrossing read from an author who proves she can hold her own in the crowded police procedural market.