An Eye for an Eye by Carol Wyer

Blog tour: 1 to 10 February 2021

Synopsis

A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control.

DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest.

But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer might be closer than she ever imagined.

As she works to uncover the truth, Young unravels a network of secrets and lies, with even those closest to her having something to hide. But with her own competence – and her grip on reality – called into question, can she unmask the killer before they strike again?

My review

An Eye for an Eye is the first in a new series from Carol Wyer. Set in Staffordshire, it features Detective Inspector Kate Young, 34, who started 2021 in traumatic fashion when there was a shocking incident and she was first on the scene. Afterwards, she took some sick leave but then returned to work too soon after and has resorted to prescription pills to try and overcome the trauma of that day, which she keeps seeing in regular flashbacks.

After being commended for her actions on that awful afternoon at a special event, she’s on a train with her boss, Superintendent John Dickson, when she suffers a flashback and a kind of panic attack and reacts instinctively and nearly hurts someone. Dickson is concerned and advises her to take extended leave to try and recover.

Three months later, Detective Chief Inspector William Chase visits Kate and tells her that Dickson wants her to return to work to head up a three-person team to look into the nasty killing of a local businessman, Alex Corby, who has been tortured at his home. He runs Corby International, a British food export company, and has a wife, Fiona, and two children, Hugh and Jacob, who were on holiday at their villa in the south of France at the time of the murder.

Kate teams up with Detective Sergeant (DS) Emma Donaldson, 23, and DS Morgan Meredith, 24, to investigate the murder and they combine well as they begin working on the complicated case, in which everyone connected seems to be lying about something and the police struggle to confirm their movements and alibis.

When another man is found murdered in similarly nasty circumstances, the police must work hard to try and uncover the links between the two victims before the next grisly killing occurs.

DI Kate Young is obviously a very traumatised and troubled character but she really digs deep to try and hold it together and be strong and a good leader to her team. Her colleagues, Emma and Morgan, are very concerned about her behaviour at times, as she talks to herself and acts strangely, and they’re aware that she is taking medication for her stress and anxiety.

Kate’s husband, Chris, 38, is a journalist and very supportive; he regularly chips in with helpful comments and advice as she struggles to work out what’s going on in this complex case.

Overall, I really enjoyed this well-written and cleverly plotted police procedural. There were lots of twists and turns, red herrings and elements of misdirection, and I had my suspicions about a few people as the investigation unfolded and more clues were revealed. There were several culprits, with various motives and opportunities to murder.

The investigation unravels well and there were several breakthroughs at key moments, as well as moments of frustration when the team didn’t seem to be getting anywhere and Kate was being hassled by her rather unsympathetic boss, Dickson. She is suspicious of his motives as he seems to be hampering her case at times.

I’m a big fan of police procedural novels and this was an excellent read! The story is gripping, engaging and satisfyingly well paced. It’s also very tense and entertaining and I read it in a couple of days, frantically turning the pages to see what was going to happen next! There were quite a few revelations that I was surprised by and I hadn’t worked out how all the pieces of the puzzle were going to fit together.

Despite having several of the author’s books in Kindle and paper format, this is the first one that I’ve read so I’ll definitely be rectifying that soon and reading some more! I can’t wait for the next instalment of the Detective Kate Young series, A Cut for a Cut, which is out in June, and I’m looking forward to finding out more about this complex character.

Buy the book

An Eye for an Eye by Carol Wyer can be purchased from Amazon on Kindle and in paperback.

About the author

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer writes feel-good comedies and gripping crime fiction.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and demonstrated that stand-up comedian Carol had found her true niche.

To date, her crime novels have sold over 750,000 copies and been translated for various overseas markets.

Carol has been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing irritable male syndrome and ageing disgracefully and on BBC Breakfast television. She has had articles published in national magazine, Woman’s Weekly, featured in Take A Break, Choice, Yours and Woman’s Own magazines and the Huffington Post.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr Grumpy … who is very, very grumpy.

When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

Twitter: @carolewyer
Facebook: @AuthorCarolEWyer
Instagram: @carolwyer
Website: www.carolwyer.co.uk
Blog: www.carolwyer.com
YouTube: @CarolEWyer

Blog tour

Thanks to Emma Welton at damppebbles blog tours for my digital copy of An Eye for an Eye and for my place on the blog tour.

See the banner below for more stops on the #blogtour.