Portobello Book Blog

First of all, can we all just admire that fab cover! The colours and picture are so eye-catching. I loved the first book featuring DI Frank Farrell, Dead Man’s Prayer – you can read my review by clicking here. Perfect Dead can easily be read as a standalone though so don’t worry if you haven’t read the first book. There are a few references to what happened in the previous book but nothing that means you won’t understand this one.

This book starts off by immediately grabbing the attention with the prologue. A young girl is heading to get a bus home when she meets someone who she knows and goes off with them instead. Before long she realises she has made a big mistake and “a last tear tipped from her eyes. She would never see her home again.” At once I wanted to who was the person she went off, what had happened and why. Just what you need to hook you into a book.

DI Frank Farrell and the others in his team are looking into art forgery ring suspected to be working out of Kirkcudbright. A member of local art community, The Collective, who has recently been nominated for a major art prize is found dead in an apparent suicide. Human remains are found on the hills above the town, Could they be the girl who disappeared three years ago after leaving The Collective? With the art connection, are the three cases connected?

I love the main character of Frank Farrell. He is a very complex character. As well as being a dedicated and determined detective, he is also an ex- Catholic priest. Technically he is still a priest although he has been released from his duties. Once you have been ordained as a priest, you are always a priest.  His sense of vocation still guides his decision making and he is perhaps beginning to feel that call again. He has the added worry about a work colleague having serious marital difficulties. The complication is that Frank used to go out with his wife before he became a priest. Frank feels really torn between his call to the priesthood and his work as a detective and it was fascinating watching him in this book as he tried to decide where he could do the most good.

As well as having a great main character, Perfect Dead is also a cracking crime novel with plenty of surprises to keep you turning the pages. It is well paced and there is so much going on: murder, mystery, tension, danger, plenty action and even some romance. A terrific crime thriller and I do hope there are more DI Frank Farrell books to come, especially since the book ends with such a heart-stopping climax.

My thanks to Kelly at Love Books Group Tours for inviting me to be part of the blogtour. Perfect Dead is available now in e-book format and the paperback will follow in August. You can order a copy online here: Perfect Dead

From the back of the book

Each murder brings him one step closer to the perfect death.

Ex-priest DI Farrell is called on to investigate a gruesome death in rural Scotland. All evidence points to suicide, except for one loose end: every light in the cottage was switched off. Why would he kill himself in the dark?

The question sparks a murder investigation that leads to the mysterious Ivy House, home of ‘The Collective’, a sinister commune of artists who will do anything to keep their twisted secrets hidden.

And when the remains of a young girl are uncovered on a barren stretch of coastline, Farrell realises that there is something rotten in this tight-knit community. Now he must track down a ruthless killer before another person dies, this time much closer to home…

Don’t miss the rest of the tour with these fab bloggers!