Dead Mercy by Noelle Holten

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Dead Mercy by Noelle Holten, the fifth in the DC Maggie Jamieson series (After Dead Inside, Dead Wrong, Dead Perfect and Dead Secret). Thanks to Sarah Hardy at Book on the Bright Side Publicity and Promo for the invitation and to The publisher for my review copy. 

The Blurb

'Hugely confident … harrowing, visceral … recommended’ Ian Rankin on Dead Inside

A brutal murder…

When a burned body is found with its teeth missing, DC Maggie Jamieson discovers that the victim may be the husband of one of her probation colleagues.

A dark history…

As the body count rises, the team becomes increasingly baffled by how the victims could possibly be connected until a clue leads them to a historical case that was never prosecuted.

A terrible secret…

In order to catch the killer, Maggie must piece together what happened all those years ago before it’s too late.

My Review

I can't believe we're on the fifth Maggie Jamieson book already - how time flies! Maggie and the team are back, still shaken after events in the last book. And Dr Kate Maloney is returning to work part time with the team, offering her expertise and helping to build profiles of perpetrators. The story opens with a terrifying description of a crime taking place in the office of a probation colleague's husband. When the body is later discovered so are his wallet and keys... But this is just the beginning of a very difficult investigation for the police team, together with partnership colleagues in probation and social care.

The storyline covers a sensitive subject, and it might make hard reading for some. But Noelle handles it with sensitivity, and no sensationalism. Sometimes difficult reading nevertheless because, whilst this is fiction, there have been similar cases in real life. 

We see the crimes from the perpetrator's point of view and the descriptions of them are quite graphic - prepare yourselves! As are the descriptions of the scenes once the crimes have been discovered. But it's all in keeping with the story and also enables us to learn a little of the killer's thinking and their motivation and it makes for uncomfortable reading. 

Maggie and the team have a lot to be getting on with as the investigation progresses and we see them stumble down a few blind alleys before seeing the way though. It's great to see them all back again and working strongly together - I like the interpersonal relationships. There are a lot of minor characters to keep track of - I actually got a bit confused but that may well have been me. 

Dead Mercy is a tense, effective police procedural which deals with a difficult subject sensitively and makes you stop and think about justice, revenge and taking the law into one's own hands. It considers how events from the past can still have an effect many years later. A great edition to the series.

The Author

Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA’s – Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice – and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle’s hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog. Dead Inside – her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK is an international kindle bestseller and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.


Author Social Media Links

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