Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
It starts with a brutal murder of a young woman, and with a headline from the local paper left - as the killer's calling card. Hardly the sort of job DI Eve Hunter expects as her first case after a long time out of the game. Then things go from bad to worse, as more bodies turn up. To catch the murderer, Eve will have to face truths she has kept hidden since childhood.
The gritty urban crime novel is a crowded field - in which it can be difficult for writers making their debut to stand out. The fact that Deborah Masson does so effortlessly, is evidence of the depth of her talent and the potential for this to be the start of a rewarding new series.
The setting in Aberdeen, a town made rich by its oil boom struggling to cope with the black stuff running out one day, is brilliantly evoked. The streets are no less mean for having been visited less by the genre, than those of Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Eve Hunter is a central character with a satisfyingly conflicted backstory providing personal challenges to be overcome that rival the crimes she investigates in complexity. The supporting cast is well drawn too, with the tangled mess of rivalries and loyalties that you would expect from a small group of people working in a high-pressure environment.
This is a strong first novel, setting the scene for a series that could become one of the highlights to anticipate in any crime reader’s year.
