The Birthday

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've never read this author before and as soon as I saw that it was the first in a collection of detective novels, I was a little turned off. But my expectations were exceeded for sure.

This novel follows DI Natalie as she tries to solve who is abducting and murdering young girls in the area. The beginning started off a little slow and I feel it had just a tad too much about her personal life as a start. However, a couple chapters in it really picked up.

I have trouble finding mysteries I like that don't seem totally obvious early in the book. This was not one of those books. I thought it might be but it quickly turned into a thick plot with many, many suspects, like... everyone. I read it in 2 days, picking it up any free moment I had. And here I am at midnight, having stayed up to finish it because I couldn't go to bed not knowing the ending!

Would I recommend this book? Yes. Maybe I wouldn't like to read the same type of story every day but if you want a break from your normal routine of not reading a lot of mysteries, pick it up. And as an added bonus, if you love British procedural television, you'll love this!