Synopsis: The beam shines around the dark room, lighting up the woman in sky-blue pyjamas lying on the couch. But she doesn’t wake under the bright glow, she isn’t sleeping at all…
When a concerned neighbour reports a woman missing, Detective Morgan Brookes squeezes through the stiff front door to find the woman dead. At first, the case appears unsuspicious, but something about the scene unsettles Morgan. Every clock in the house has been stopped, every mirror covered, and the woman seems physically unharmed except for one missing lock of hair.
Shirley Kelly was loved by her friends and hated by her ex-husband and his new wife, but they have an iron-clad alibi, and Morgan is certain that the scene-staging holds a vital clue. She’s devastated to be proved right when another woman is killed, and her home arranged in the same way. The only difference is that the second victim has been stabbed, using a knife from Shirley’s own kitchen…
The team can’t find a connection between the two women, but Morgan is sure that there is a deadly pattern to the killer’s actions. She hunts through each woman’s past until she finds the link: years ago, they both worked for a woman called Evelyn Reynolds, before tragedy struck her young family. But what has made them targets now? Morgan knows this twisted case is far from over, can she find the final clue before the clock stops for the next name on the killer’s list?
My Rating: 3/5
My Review: Mmmmm, with book 6 now under my belt I was a little underwhelmed by this latest book for a few reasons! First of all as it states this is book 6 in the series and I am not sure how I would fare if I had picked this book up without reading the previous ones. I think you need a little history of the story and characters to build up to this part of the series. In addition the personal and relationship side for Morgan seems to have jumped a book or two, and buy that I mean the reader is just made aware of Morgan’s living situation from the offset with no storyline surrounding how that happened…it just did!
The scene that Morgan and her boss Ben attend is odd and it seems that with mirrors covered and clocks stopped there is clearly a meaning behind this woman’s murder. When a second woman is killed the team are finding it almost impossible to link the two people which makes finding the killer that much harder. In addition to the case they are working we see chapters thrown in from a young boy in the 80s living with his grandmother. I liked this element of the story with the chapters being threaded throughout the book.
Although I am still really enjoying this series this latest book felt a little flat for me and with the added irritation of Morgan’s love life being left out for the reader it ended up feeling a little flat. Not to be deterred I am straight on to book 7…
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