An Eye for an Eye by Carol Wyer

I haven’t read anything by Carol Wyer before so this is my first introduction to her style. I can see from other reviews that Kate Young is a new detective to an established fold but I don’t have any loyalty conflict there.

An Eye for an Eye has a powerful start, the train scene was hugely immersive and I felt my my own heart rate increase as the events unfolded.

Then, for me, it was a little bit of a slow burn – now I quite often favour the ‘wham-bam-thank-you-mam‘ breakneck pace of authors like Simon Kernick so it no doubt did me good to take things in properly as the story unfolded. This definitely helps to understand Kate’s character and what she is going through.

Should she have been a serving officer – not so much…

Knowing there will be some good reasoning behind the book title sat at the back of my mind as I anticipated a dark tale… And dark it was, there are lots of characters, ergo potential suspects and there is lots to play out in this book with plenty of shocks and plot drops along the way.

Blurb: A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control.

DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest.

But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer might be closer than she ever imagined.

As she works to uncover the truth, Young unravels a network of secrets and lies, with even those closest to her having something to hide. But with her own competence—and her grip on reality—called into question, can she unmask the killer before they strike again?