Two decades of secrets. One shocking discovery...
Book blurb
When a skull is found in Lough Coyne, facial reconstruction expert Dr Carla Steele is drawn into a fourteen-year-old case - but not all cases are cold, as Carla discovers when she and DS Jack Maguire find the brutally murdered body of a local woman close to the water's edge.
Together with Carla's partner, criminal psychologist Grace Franciosi, Carla and Jack uncover a tragic story with very dangerous and current implications.
Since the disappearance of her best friend, Carla has dedicated her career to bringing the dead home, but this time it's the living who are counting on her. In a race to save another woman, will they be able to stop the killer in time?
My thoughts
Dr Carla Steele, Head of the Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement (FACE) department, Forensic Services Ireland who reside at Garda HQ in Dublin. She and the team reconstruct what a victim most likely looks like from their skull, predicting facial features from the evidence at hand, as a tool to help investigators identify them.
Dr Grace Franciosi is a Forensic Psychologist. She and Carla met at Trinity, Dublin. She and Carla live together.
DS Jack Maguire, Coynes Cross, Co. Mayo comes to see Carla with an evidence box. The contents found by divers in Loch Coyne as they were searching for a marine video camera that had dropped overboard. A skull, no body yet recovered, the dental casts had not provided an identification.
Carla and Grace go to Coyne Cross so that Carla can get a sense of the place adding to her knowledge as she feels her way to the reconstruction. Here we meet several other characters who become integral to the story.
Danielle Brennan owns the café beside Loch Coyne and her husband Ruari who owns the adventure centre at the Loch. He is also part of the of the diving team heading up the search and rescue on the Loch.
Melissa is Danielle's cousin and runs holiday cottage lets. She is married to Sean and has a sister Julia.
Then there's the local Coyne Cross Garda sergeant - Seamus.
This, the first of a series, is giving us a lot of information about the main characters as the investigation continues. Sam Blake does this really well blending these two elements smoothly and seamlessly. You get a good sense of who Carla, Grace and Jack are and it sets the way for them to go forward through the series. We learn a good deal of their personal stories particularly Carla and Jack.
Carla does her thing with the skull even though it's been in the water for some time. Certainly longer than the anticipated time had this been one of the young male suicides that Loch Coyne had been having more recently. She also confirms, even without the body, that it most likely belongs to a teenage female. There are fracture lines from a blow to the head that had not healed.
Jack has a cold case on his hands and with the help of Carla and Grace unearths what turns out to be a sad set of circumstances that led to the death. However, there are more murders and other crimes committed that lead them to the culprit. The tension builds really well and the story is both fascinating and gripping.
I liked that there is a different, fresh viewpoint from Carla into the investigation. Jack is a good policeman who has a good mind and heart. Grace's character is a good juxtaposition with regard to both Jack and Carla. She's a character that could, I thought, so easily become an irritant but her interactions with Jack and especially with Carla keep her just the right side of annoying. Carla is a breath of fresh air and I really liked that even though she is young she has a responsible position. She's a distinctive personality both externally and emotionally, her desire to 'bring the missing home' a driving force behind her success is based on a personal tragedy which will, I have no doubt that it must, play out in the series.
The setting is interesting and well drawn. Rural Ireland (Eire/the south) Jack covers a larger area than Coyne Cross alone and it is also partly set in Dublin, since that is where Carla and Grace are based, so a number of options for the rest of the series.
This is a writer and series that I will continue to read. I want to see the development of these characters and read more stories of the investigations they have. I would highly recommend to those who enjoy crime fiction and like both character development and a slight twist to the 'simple' police procedural. I really enjoyed Three Little Birds by Sam Blake.
Information
Publisher : Corvus (4 Jan. 2024) | ISBN: 9781805460121 | 407 pages
Buy: Corvus Atlantic | Hive | Waterstones | AmazonSmileUK |
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Author: Sam Blake has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks and she had an idea for a book.
Sam, originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire, now lives in Ireland, at the foot of the Wicklow mountains in a 200-year-old-cottage with several cats and an occasional poltergeist who moves things at the most inconvenient moments. Her debut novel, Little Bones, launched the Cat Connolly trilogy and was a runaway bestseller.
She moved away from police procedurals to write psychological thrillers for Corvus Atlantic, the first, Keep Your Eyes On Me, went straight to No 1 in January 2020. All Sam's books have been bestsellers and she has been shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year three times.
Sam is also writing YA crime for Gill Books and Something Terrible Happened Last Night, her YA debut was published in May 2023. Something's About to Blow Up is published by Gill Books & Bolinda Audio in May 2024.
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Released as a worldwide digital exclusive, 'High Pressure' is a bonus spiderweb book linking Sam's adult series and standalone books. Join her Readers' Club and you can download it for free!
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Check out Sam's writing courses where she takes you through her writing process to guide you to write your own bestseller, and her online writers group, Writers Ink where writers at all stages can find coaching, mentoring and critique in a successful and supportive community.
In April 2024 Sam Blake was appointed Chair of the Society of Authors (SoA) board of directors.
Website: Sam Blake | Follow on social @samblakebooks.
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