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bmartin94's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death
Anbrandie_abbie19's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Dementia, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
cj_mo_2222's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Outstanding procedural thriller with a likable detective team and a twisty plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death
wordsofclover's review
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
DI Adam Fawley and the team find their Christmas holidays cut short when a house fire turns from a suspected arson attack to a murder when the bodies of two young children are recovered with no sign of the parents. As the team look into the family and what could have caused such a terrible incident to happen, Adam struggles to keep his home life afloat and keep up with the job.
Having gone into this series slightly backward (I read the fourth book first, and then started from the first), this one is my favourite book following the fourth (Close to Home). I really like this series for the different characters we are following on the team and how with each book and each case, we slowly slowly get to know them all a little better and a few months further on each time - and I also really like the stories for the cases that the team are investigating. I love how in each book the case has separated into a few different tails for different characters to look into, and there's normally a few twists and turns and red herrings before the conclusions.
The conclusions always let me down slightly - they were never bad but I found the first and second book conclusions slightly over the top but thankfully this resolved with No Way Out. I really enjoyed the journey of the investigation as always and I really liked following more of DC Somer who is one of my favourite characters. There were a few red herrings dropped in this book that I thought added a lot to the story and did have me jumping around a bit before the big reveals happened.
One thing I did find odd was the halt of a storyline that I presumed would have carried over from the second book and that is Adam and Alex's fostering of a little boy called Billy. There was no mention of him at all in this book and when they stopped fostering him and how Alex felt about it as we saw her bond with the boy in the second book. I just thought it strange that it didn't go anywhere else.
Having gone into this series slightly backward (I read the fourth book first, and then started from the first), this one is my favourite book following the fourth (Close to Home). I really like this series for the different characters we are following on the team and how with each book and each case, we slowly slowly get to know them all a little better and a few months further on each time - and I also really like the stories for the cases that the team are investigating. I love how in each book the case has separated into a few different tails for different characters to look into, and there's normally a few twists and turns and red herrings before the conclusions.
The conclusions always let me down slightly - they were never bad but I found the first and second book conclusions slightly over the top but thankfully this resolved with No Way Out. I really enjoyed the journey of the investigation as always and I really liked following more of DC Somer who is one of my favourite characters. There were a few red herrings dropped in this book that I thought added a lot to the story and did have me jumping around a bit before the big reveals happened.
One thing I did find odd was the halt of a storyline that I presumed would have carried over from the second book and that is Adam and Alex's fostering of a little boy called Billy. There was no mention of him at all in this book and when they stopped fostering him and how Alex felt about it as we saw her bond with the boy in the second book. I just thought it strange that it didn't go anywhere else.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death and Death
Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, and Dementia
dogearedbooks's review
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Alcoholism, Mental illness, Suicide, Grief, and Alcohol
Minor: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, and Sexual harassment
outsmartyourshelf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Christmas is not a great time for DI Fawley this year. His wife has walked out and his next case involves the death of two young children in a fire. It seems as if they had been left in the house alone and a tragic accident happened. Soon evidence emerges that something was wrong at the heart of this family and that it may not have been an accident at all.
I thought this was a very good third novel in this series. The characters are beginning to settle in and the plot was much more complicated than it appeared at first glance. The twists and turns covered amongst other things sibling rivalry, postnatal depression, and the phenomenon of family annihilators. The short sections at the end from the point of view of the two young children were particularly poignant.
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Penguin Books (UK), for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
I thought this was a very good third novel in this series. The characters are beginning to settle in and the plot was much more complicated than it appeared at first glance. The twists and turns covered amongst other things sibling rivalry, postnatal depression, and the phenomenon of family annihilators. The short sections at the end from the point of view of the two young children were particularly poignant.
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Penguin Books (UK), for the opportunity to read an ARC. I am voluntarily giving an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Mental illness
Minor: Sexual assault