by Michelle Kidd
Release Date: July 16, 2024
2024 Joffe Books
Ebook ARC; 331 Pages
ISBN: 978-1835265550
ASIN: B0CTHQJYBW
Genre: Fiction / Mystery
Source: Review copy from publisher
3.75 / 5 Stars
Summary
The call comes at midnight on a stormy March
night. A body has been found hanging from a tree on Hardwick Heath. In
the dead man’s pocket is a handwritten SORRY. LIFE IS JUST TOO HARD. LOVE TO YOU ALL.
Detective Nicki’s instincts tell her this was no suicide — but someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like one.
Three days later, a second body is found floating in a pond, just a few miles away. But the victim didn’t drown.
The police are treating the deaths as separate cases. Then Nicki uncovers a link between the two dead men — and the case takes a shocking twist.
As she unearths a series of secrets stretching back twenty years, Nicki and her team find themselves in a race against time before more people die.
Detective Nicki’s instincts tell her this was no suicide — but someone has gone to a lot of trouble to make it look like one.
Three days later, a second body is found floating in a pond, just a few miles away. But the victim didn’t drown.
The police are treating the deaths as separate cases. Then Nicki uncovers a link between the two dead men — and the case takes a shocking twist.
As she unearths a series of secrets stretching back twenty years, Nicki and her team find themselves in a race against time before more people die.
My Thoughts
The Hardwick Heath Killer is the third book in the DI Nicki Hardcastle series, and while it was enjoyable, I did feel it lacked the tension of the first two books, and I wasn’t as engaged in the main story line as I was in the previous stories. This book does focus quite a bit on the kidnapping of Nicki’s brother all those years ago, and I really enjoyed how that tied into the first two books.
Nicki is an engaging MC and I really enjoy her character. She is a pretty sharp detective and investigator and is determined to follow through on every lead despite pushback from those around her. I found her to be quite empathetic; perhaps it’s her personal struggles and the grief over losing her brother all those years ago that make her seem so relatable, it’s hard to say. And while she has strong supporting characters around her, Nicki’s strength and determination really make her stand out from all the other characters.
I absolutely loved the setting and the atmosphere as I felt it added a depth to the story through a fascinating background and historical richness that only such a setting can provide. I love it when an author intertwines history and uses the setting to add depth to the story line and this author does this very well. The twists and turns were quite interesting, but I did feel the story was a bit choppier than in previous novels and wasn’t quite satisfied with the main mystery. It felt like it was there to fill in the gaps between Nicki’s search for her lost brother and sometimes lost momentum. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, it just felt it wasn’t going anywhere and felt rushed so the author could get to the other story, which was the search for the brother.
Verdict
The Hardwick Heath Killer was a good entry into this series, but I don’t feel the tension was quite as high as in the previous two books. That being said, the author does tie together all the loose ends, maybe not in a way that satisfies everything, and leaves the door open for some interesting plot lines in future books. While you don’t necessarily have to read the previous books in this series, I do recommend it as you will get some information for this book that is explained in the earlier books. I am looking forward to the next installment in this series.
Nicki is an engaging MC and I really enjoy her character. She is a pretty sharp detective and investigator and is determined to follow through on every lead despite pushback from those around her. I found her to be quite empathetic; perhaps it’s her personal struggles and the grief over losing her brother all those years ago that make her seem so relatable, it’s hard to say. And while she has strong supporting characters around her, Nicki’s strength and determination really make her stand out from all the other characters.
I absolutely loved the setting and the atmosphere as I felt it added a depth to the story through a fascinating background and historical richness that only such a setting can provide. I love it when an author intertwines history and uses the setting to add depth to the story line and this author does this very well. The twists and turns were quite interesting, but I did feel the story was a bit choppier than in previous novels and wasn’t quite satisfied with the main mystery. It felt like it was there to fill in the gaps between Nicki’s search for her lost brother and sometimes lost momentum. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, it just felt it wasn’t going anywhere and felt rushed so the author could get to the other story, which was the search for the brother.
Verdict
The Hardwick Heath Killer was a good entry into this series, but I don’t feel the tension was quite as high as in the previous two books. That being said, the author does tie together all the loose ends, maybe not in a way that satisfies everything, and leaves the door open for some interesting plot lines in future books. While you don’t necessarily have to read the previous books in this series, I do recommend it as you will get some information for this book that is explained in the earlier books. I am looking forward to the next installment in this series.
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