Review: The Tees Valley Killings (DI Max Byrd & DI Orion Tanzy #1) by C.J. Grayson

                        

Print Length: 404 pages

Publisher: Joffe Books (June 14, 2023)

From Goodreads.com: Please note this is a completely revised edition of That Night .

Darlington is a small Northern town where everyone knows everyone. And Detectives Tanzy and Byrd know there's a twisted serial killer in their midst . . .

They find Julia Porter's body tied to a chair in her quiet family home in the outskirts of Darlington. She's covered in blood, and someone has cut out her eyes.
Next to her is a message written in red She didn't see it coming.

Detectives Tanzy and Byrd have never seen the like of this in their town before. Then a few days later a woman is handed a package on the high street.
It contains Julia Porter's eyes . . . It's a warning.

Darlington used to be a nice town. Not any more.

Detectives Tanzy and Byrd must stop this twisted serial killer before more women pay the ultimate price.

                                                         *******************

My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Wow, do I feel duped by this novel. This was a solid five-star concept, but the execution did not do it justice. 

Let me start off by talking about the technical issues that might have been resolved between the time I read it (as an advanced reader copy) and the final release. The copy that I read was full of errors that a good edit would fix. Some of them were grammatical, some of them were technical (the characters were doing/seeing something in one sentence then doing/seeing the same thing a paragraph later or worse, their partner was doing/seeing/commenting on the same plot point we had already seen but acting like it was new instead of something that had already been discussed). 

There was also a secondary plot that didn't seem to fit in at all with the rest of the story. In fact, not only did it have nothing to do with the main plot of the story, it seemed to only be included for sake of upping the word count. It would be mentioned, then seemingly forgotten about, then mentioned again, then forgotten about until the police show up. 

The final nail in the coffin was the fact that despite there being a very interesting twist, one of the perpetrators gets off with absolutely no repercussions for their part. And then, the book abruptly comes to an end right after another is found out. Sure, they get arrested, and we can assume, based on what is said, that we know why they did what they did, but I would have liked to have known more, maybe actually heard in their own words what caused them to take part in what was done. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

                                                         *******************

                                               

                                          The Tees Valley Killings is available on Amazon.com

                                              (for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)

                                                

>