Publishers Weekly
★ 04/09/2018
At the start of the enthralling debut from Dyer (the pen name for two British authorities on crime), Det. Sgt. Ruth Lake holds the gun that just shot her partner, Det. Chief Insp. Greg Carver, who’s been pursuing the Thorn Killer. Greg is slumped on the sitting room floor of his Liverpool house and, amazingly, alive. Before calling in the shooting, Ruth wipes all surfaces she touched and stashes in her car the box of evidence on the Thorn Killer, who has been terrorizing the city using poison-drenched thorns to kill his victims. When Greg wakes up in the hospital, he can’t remember anything that happened on the day he was shot, but he’s sure that his shooting is a warning not to get too close to the killer. While Greg recuperates in the hospital, Ruth, a former crime scene investigator, clandestinely pursues the Thorn Killer. But Ruth is harboring a dark secret that she’ll do almost anything to keep hidden. The skillfully constructed plot complements the intriguing characters, including a deliciously creepy killer who lurks in the background. Dyer is definitely a crime writer to watch. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM. (June)
From the Publisher
A taut and compelling thriller, as sharp as the thorns that feature in the plot.” — Ann Cleeves, Internationally Bestselling Author of the Vera Stanhope and Shetland series
“Compelling, clever. Packed with macabre and fascinating forensic details. A stunning debut.” — Mo Hayder, bestselling author of Gone
“[An] enthralling debut…. The skillfully constructed plot complements the intriguing characters, including a deliciously creepy killer who lurks in the background. Dyer is definitely a crime writer to watch.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“With complicated leads and a ruthless killer whose method is barbaric enough to be frightening without shading into the grotesque, this is a debut worthy of sequels.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[T]his debut spins to a breathless conclusion. Solid suspense fiction by a knowledgeable duo.” — Booklist
“One of the boldest, most inventive serial-killer thrillers since The Silence of the Lambs. Packed with forensic detail, anchored by a protagonist as complicated as she is compelling, this ferocious novel is perfect for fans of Jeffery Deaver and Lisa Gardner.” — A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Woman in the Window
“This novel starts off with a bang of a puzzler and keeps surprising all the way through...Very nice start to a new series.” — Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine
“This is the ultimate cat-and-mouse game between police and a psycho…but it has so much more. The need to delve into this book and reveal the secrets is difficult to avoid... Just know that whatever you think you know…you will be wrong.” — Suspense Magazine
“I love this book. I love the main character, Ruth Lake, and love the dynamic with her partner, Carver. The science of the investigation felt like a Patricia Cornwell novel, as well as the intrigue. I really appreciated the complicated ethics of Ruth, something unique in detective novels.” — Shannon Kirk, author of the international bestseller, Method 15/33
Shannon Kirk
I love this book. I love the main character, Ruth Lake, and love the dynamic with her partner, Carver. The science of the investigation felt like a Patricia Cornwell novel, as well as the intrigue. I really appreciated the complicated ethics of Ruth, something unique in detective novels.”
Mo Hayder
Compelling, clever. Packed with macabre and fascinating forensic details. A stunning debut.
Suspense Magazine
This is the ultimate cat-and-mouse game between police and a psycho…but it has so much more. The need to delve into this book and reveal the secrets is difficult to avoid... Just know that whatever you think you know…you will be wrong.
Ann Cleeves
A taut and compelling thriller, as sharp as the thorns that feature in the plot.
A. J. Finn
One of the boldest, most inventive serial-killer thrillers since The Silence of the Lambs. Packed with forensic detail, anchored by a protagonist as complicated as she is compelling, this ferocious novel is perfect for fans of Jeffery Deaver and Lisa Gardner.
Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine
This novel starts off with a bang of a puzzler and keeps surprising all the way through...Very nice start to a new series.
Booklist
[T]his debut spins to a breathless conclusion. Solid suspense fiction by a knowledgeable duo.
Booklist
[T]his debut spins to a breathless conclusion. Solid suspense fiction by a knowledgeable duo.
Kirkus Reviews
2018-04-17
DCI Greg Carver is leading the hunt for a serial killer who leaves intricate tattoos on victims' bodies, but the investigation is thrown into turmoil when Carver is shot in his own home.Five women. Five bodies full of increasingly elaborate tattoo art made with a thorn instead of a needle. Liverpool DCI Carver has been leading the Thorn Killer investigation team, until he's found shot by his partner, the inscrutable DS Ruth Lake. It seems extremely suspicious that a police officer would come upon a crime scene, take the murder weapon and her partner's secret notes on the case, and wipe the scene down for prints, all before calling for help. But it appears that Lake has a motive for everything, squeaky clean or not. With Carver laid up in the hospital and Lake told to stay away from the investigation into his shooting, being a semiwitness and all, she dives back into the Thorn Killer inquiry, focusing on the last victim, theater student Kara Grogan, a young woman who bore a striking resemblance to Carver's estranged wife. As Lake dips her toe into the often vicious world of amateur theater, Carver fights his own battles at the hospital, trying to remember the events that put him there and whether the Thorn Killer is responsible. Interludes from the killer, while commonplace in crime fiction, are an unneeded crutch here but don't slow the momentum.With complicated leads and a ruthless killer whose method is barbaric enough to be frightening without shading into the grotesque, this is a debut worthy of sequels.
