Serial killer on the loose. Interesting, true to life characters; good plot. Will read more from this author. ( )

After reading Mummy's Favourite, the first book in the DC 'Charlie' Stafford series, last year, I wasn't convinced that Charlie was a protagonist I would be keen on following, but with this second book, Sarah Flint has me fully on board now. Charlie comes across as more "real" in this installment and Ms Flint has delivered a solid police procedural that should appeal to all fans of British crime fiction. Charlie and her team are busy with two cases: the racially aggravated assaults committed by Cornell Miller who has escaped custody and the search for a killer who rips his victims' hearts out and keeps their ring fingers as trophies. Sounds gruesome, but compared to some of the scenarios in Mummy's Favourite, Sarah Flint has turned it down a lot. I wasn't anywhere near as disturbed as I was reading the first book. If you add the family atmosphere and banter among the team of the Community Support Unit at the Metropolitan Police, this actually had a feel-good tone to it (in parts) with the entire team made up of very likable characters. Charlie's third person point of view covers the majority of the book, but small passages are written from the perspectives of the serial killer and from Cornell Miller. I thought that worked well. I actually felt more invested in the secondary storyline about the racial crimes than in the hunt for the serial killer. The nastiness of Cornell Miller was repulsive and reading about how one of his victims' life was affected was intensely moving. The author did a very good job with the way the two storylines were combined in the end. Overall, this was a well-paced, enjoyable and believable police procedural with realistic characters. I look forward to more.
I received an ARC via NetGalley.

Sarah Flint has written one detailed and shocking mystery. Between her surprising cast of characters, well thought out plot and descriptive scenes she’s able to set a story you won’t figure out ‘til the end.

She uses vivid imagery to set her scenes so you have an accurate picture of your surroundings and the people. It was a nice touch how she included real world political elements such as Brexit and Europe’s ongoing problem with Islamophobia.

She’s created a well-developed set of characters and you can actually connect with the law enforcement in this book as she’s made them into real people instead of just props for the criminals to do battle against. Even her plot lines with the coroner are so realistic I felt like I was watching scenes from CSI episodes or one of its spin-offs. The group dynamics between her law enforcement characters feels real and supported by the personalities and plot lines she’s created. The way she describes how the families of victims process their own trauma from dealing with the death or severe injury of a loved one seems psychologically accurate. Reading the heartbreaking description of what happened to a detective’s brother will squeeze your heart.

Her crime scenes are incredibly descriptive to the point your skin will crawl and stomach heave as you will be forced to confront some of the worst humanity has to offer. Scenes of child molestation and how pedophiles think are vomit worthy and tear jerking. ‘Hearing’ a pedophile justify his actions will make you tap into that hidden side in all of us where we could kill another person with absolute justification.

The bits of historical context she included about various buildings and places was a fun touch that showed Flint really makes an effort to grip her readers attention.

If you’re into suspenseful crime thrillers you should like this. ( )