Description
The man lay on his front, his arms and legs bound and pulled up with a rope connecting the two. His head was arched back, so he faced the curtains, and there was masking tape over his mouth. Erika gingerly reached out and checked his pulse.
Yep. Dead all right.
When Detective Erika Foster finds politician Neville Lomas naked, hog-tied, and dead in his own bed, skittish higher-ups at the Met quickly rule the death from natural causes. Case closed . . . until two months later when a well-known casting director and a star footballer are found murdered and tied with the same knots. The Met can no longer ignore what’s staring them in the face: there’s a serial killer loose in London, and they’re out to settle a score.
As Erika and her team investigate, things take a strange turn as CCTV footage turns up five female suspects . . . and they’re all identical.
In the hunt to identify the women, Erika is outpaced at every turn by an elusive sex worker with dirt on enough powerful men to make the Met’s top brass nervous – and desperate.
As time ticks away until the killer strikes again, it’s up to Erika to untangle the web of evidence and answer the critical questions: What ties the victims together, who else is caught up in this scandal, and how far are the higher-ups willing to go to protect their own?
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Robert never disappoints. Lethal Vengeance is the eighth book in the Erika Foster series and is a cracking read.
A man has been found in his bed naked, hog tied and very dead. And there are Polaroid photographs. It turns out he’s a politician who had been implicated in various scandals in the past including lurid tabloid stories and the men in grey suits are soon involved in the case. Despite Erika being first on scene (by chance), the case is given to another officer, a Superintendent Dan Fisk, and is shut down fairly quickly, the death being ruled as natural causes. Erika is not totally convinced.
However two months later another high profile individual is found murdered and tied with the same knots. A third potential victim who had died in a similar manner is then identified. It seems there is a serial killer on the loose who is targeting high profile individuals.
Erika is then told that she can’t be on the case, that top brass feel she’s a loose cannon, and that Dan Fisk should take the lead. Despite her years of experience and her success rate with murder cases, it seems she’s being blocked or by-passed at every turn.
I found myself connecting with the story immediately. It’s like meeting old friends (plus a few new characters). Erika is now 50 and even she feels she’s being sidelined and is seen as a relic of the past by some younger officers.
I’ve read all the Erika Foster books. I happen to have read them in sequence but they can all be read as stand alone. Erika is a great character that matures and mellows over time. It’s good to see there’s a ‘love’ interest now although it’s not always plain sailing.
I love Robert Bryndza’s writing. I know I’ve said it before but he seems to get the perfect balance of narrative and dialogue – dialogue that flows naturally. His plots are good. Layered, intriguing but not too complex. It’s always an easy but satisfying read. No matter how late it is, I always find myself wanting to read just one more chapter.
The ending of Lethal Vengeance is quite clever. Is this case done and dusted or will we hear more of it in the next Erika foster book? I’m not entirely sure but no matter what, I’m looking forward to the next instalment.
Lethal Vengeance is available now in kindle and other formats.
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