‘The Suspects’ by Jodie Lawrance

Synopsis

Detective Helen Carter needs a break. Instead, she’s going head-to-head with notorious cop killer Jimmy Osbourne.

Eight years ago he pulled off the perfect heist and fled to Spain, leaving behind a trail of carnage. But not a shred of evidence to implicate him.

Now he’s back in Edinburgh. But why? Helen has her suspicions.

Within days, a mysterious jewel thief surfaces on CCTV. A gunman shoots up a seedy back-alley.

The suspects are piling up, but Helen knows Jimmy is behind them. All her instincts tell her he’s guilty. She’s watching him. But he has eyes on her too . . .

Can she take him down before he gets to her?

My Review

I have been a fan of Jodie’s work for a little while now.  In fact I have been a fan ever since I had the good fortune to pick up the first book in the series featuring Detective Helen Carter, which is called ‘The Uniform’.  I loved the second book in the series, which is called ‘The Evidence’.  When I heard that Jodie was due to release another book in the series, I knew that I had to have it.  I soon managed to get hold of a copy of ‘The Suspects’ and I squirreled myself away until I had finished reading it.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Suspects’ but more about that in a bit.

I love the character of Detective Helen Carter.  At the beginning of ‘The Suspects’, we learn that Helen has been temporarily promoted to Acting Detective Sergeant Helen Carter, which hasn’t exactly gone down well with certain of her colleagues.  Helen is carrying on the ‘family business’ in that her father was also a police officer.  Her father has died and Helen is delaying having to clear out his belongings.  Helen is determined, thorough, tough, tenacious and she doesn’t suffer fools gladly.  I would say that she only really has one friend on her team as the rest either resent her or don’t agree with having a female detective.

It didn’t take me long to get into ‘The Suspects’.  In fact by the time I got to the end of the synopsis, I knew that I was going to love this book.  As soon as I started to read the story, I felt as though I had reunited with an old friend in Helen Carter.   I found that I became addicted to reading ‘The Suspects’.  I would pick the book up only intending to read to read a chapter or two but I would become so wrapped up in the story that I would still be sat there reading over half a dozen chapters later.  My Kindle wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere with me.  I just couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story.  I developed a need to know how the story turned out and the pages flew past at speed.  I soon finished the story and had to say goodbye to Helen Carter.  I found ‘The Suspects’ to be a gripping and thrilling read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

‘The Suspects’ is superbly written but then that’s certainly true of Jodie’s books in general.  Jodie has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with.  I love the way in which Jodie captures the reader’s attention and then she reels them in- much like a fisherman reeling in a catch.  For me the story hit the ground running and maintained a fairly fast pace throughout.  I love the way in which Jodie makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story themselves and at the heart of the action as it were.  Reading ‘The Suspects’ felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Suspects’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers.  I will certainly be reading more of Jodie’s work in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.