The award-winning author of WITHOUT A TRACE returns with her most heart-pounding crime thriller yet.
The gripping new Kate Daniels thriller about what happens when someone takes the law into their own hands from award-winning crime writer Mari Hannah.
LIES COST LIVES
Book blurb
Three years ago police officer Georgina Ioannau was murdered, her killers never brought to justice
Now the prime suspects have been shot dead within hours of their return to the UK.
Has someone finally taken the law into their own hands?
Seeking out the truth will force Kate Daniels to confront her own past mistakes, and put her career, and her team's lives, on the line.
My thoughts
This is an excellent series by Mari Hannah which I love and this, The Longest Goodbye, is the ninth and latest in the series.
The book opens with a tragic and appalling murder from some years ago. Georgina Ioannau was Kate's colleague and best friend her death was devastating for Kate and of course for Georgina's family. The original investigation centred on two brothers but they fled abroad and so Kate and the family had no real closure.
The opening scenes of the book bring all that up close to the reader and it is impossible not to feel the emotion, the injustice, the pain.
Kate, DCI Kate Daniels, is temporarily acting up to cover for her boss so when the murder of the main suspects in Georgina's murder happens it is her second in command DS Hank Gormley, now acting DI, who is put in charge of the investigation.
Still, Kate is not the 'hands off' kind so she undertakes to look into the original, now cold case, murder investigation of Georgina.
Is she too close to the case? Of course! Does she care? No!
She's determined that the investigation will be thoroughly checked out and that the perpetrators be established. If it is the brothers then fine. If not and Kate has reservations on the way the case was originally handled then she is beyond determined to ensure whoever did it be brought to justice. No one is out of bounds for this and Kate may well 'ruffle a few feathers' but to lay this case to rest once and for all will make it worthwhile.
The two investigations are kept separate until and if they are proved to be connected. It's interesting to see Kate and Hank in roles with greater responsibility and how they feel about it, how the team reacts to it and how they respond to that. You know that there is a team and you see the difficulties that they have to deal with and overcome. Kate is, of course, the main character and a great one.
We do, of course, have the personal side of the story for Kate. The story is set over Christmas so her being brought into work has an impact on her family life. Of course, we know Jo is not only Kate's partner but a consultant for Northumberland Police and is brought into the story on both sides. It's a fine balance between the two regarding work and home life. As a reader I really enjoy this relationship.
Mari Hannah is a master at writing police procedural stories. She is certainly one of the best crime fiction authors around. Even more than this she has the ability to make the characters, the situations so real, so believable because she is not only very thorough in her research but she has the skill to make the reader feel as devastated, as angry, as determined as Kate so you become completely engrossed and engaged in the story. The Long Goodbye is a master class in this. With its twists and turns, its very human characters and excellent plot it is a compelling, pacy, thrilling and very well executed story.
If you're a crime fiction fan you'll love this book and the series so if you're looking for something new to read make it this one.
Previously read: Stone and Oliver books 1-3; Book 4
Kate Daniels series: Without A Trace ( #7) | Her Last Request( #8)
Thanks
Many thanks to Anne at RandomThingsTours for the invitation to join this amazing event and to Mari Hannah and Orion Books for a copy* of The Longest Goodbye by Mari Hannah.
BlogTour
Do take a look at these fabulous bloggers on the tour before checking out the links below to get your very own copy of The Longest Goodbye by Mari Hannah.
Notes
Many thanks to Orion Books for sending me an actual copy of this amazing book even when I had already been sent an eCopy via GoodRead for the BlogTour. I will, of course, ensure that I put my thoughts on GoodRead but it's always good to be able to share a photo of the book.
Folks, just to say I have also bought copies of The Longest Goodbye by Mari Hannah as we went to the launch in Corbridge last week and the ticket included a copy of the book. As I already have the one from Orion we were lucky enough to have Mari dedicate one of them to a good friend of ours who will soon have it in their possession. The other copy is now with a lovely lady who was out walking her dog as we left the event and came over as she had wanted to come but was unable to. We chatted for a while about the event and Mari's books.
I had not been to an event with Mari Hannah so it was a real pleasure to meet her and to listen and enjoy the conversation with Duncan Wood, hosted by Forum Books.
Book launch
Information
Published: Orion Publishing Group, Orion (18 Jan 2024)
Buy: Waterstones | Bookshop.org | Your local bookshop | Your local library | Forum Books (for signed copies/all Mari Hannah books) | Audible
Author: Mari Hannah is a multi-award-winning author of the Stone and Oliver series, the Ryan & O'Neil series and the DCI Kate Daniels series.
Her authentic voice is no happy accident. A former probation officer Mari turned to screen writing when her career was cut short following an assault on duty.
Her debut, The Murder Wall, (adapted from a script she developed with the BBC) won her the Polari First Book Prize in 2013. Its follow-up, Settled Blood, had picked up a Northern Writers' Award in July 2010.
Mari's body of work won her the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017, an incredible honour to receive so early in her career.
In 2019, she was voted DIVA Wordsmith of the Year and made Programming Chair of the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Festival.
In 2020, she won Capital Crime International Crime Writing Festival's Crime Book of the Year for Without a Trace.
Her Kate Daniels series is in development with Stephen Fry's production company, Sprout Pictures and Atlantic Nomad.
Mari lives in rural Northumberland with her partner, an ex-murder detective. Well loved by the crime writing community and readers, Mari is a regular at festivals such as Bloody Scotland, Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and Newcastle Noir.
Mari Hannah |@mariwriter | @mariwriterinsta
Books
Stone and Oliver series
The Lost | The Insider | The Scandel | Black Fell
DCI Kate Daniels series
The Murder Wall | Settled Blood | Deadly Deceit | Monument to Murder/Fatal Games | Killing for Keeps | Gallows Drop | Without a Trace | Her Last Request
The Longest Goodbye: The brand-new Kate Daniels thriller (18 January 2024)
DS Matthew Ryan books
The Silent Room | The Death Messenger
Standalone
The Deep
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