Print Length: 253 pages
Publisher: Joffe Books (May 7, 2018)
From Goodreads.com: A woman’s body is found in a disused church, a homemade stuffed toy by her side. The victim had been dumped there months ago. The crime has the hallmarks of twenty-year-old case whose alleged perpetrator is in prison.
Detective Ruth Bayliss must work out whether a serial killer has returned, or if a new killer is just taunting the police.
Her partner DI Tom Calladine faces the fight of his life to clear his name of corruption accusations. And then things go from bad to worse for Calladine . . .
With the team under massive pressure and drugs flooding the streets, another gruesomely presented body is found.
In an ending with a huge twist, the detectives must unpick decades’ old lies before anyone else dies.
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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5
For the record (although I know I've mentioned this before) I am reading this series out of order. I read a bunch of the later books first, then started with the earlier ones. In some ways, I feel like this back and forth reading has allowed me to see things that I might have otherwise missed had I read them straight through (although some of those things don't always show things in the best light).
On the whole, I enjoyed this story. This was one of the rare ones that when I thought I knew who was behind everything, I was wrong. I will admit that Dead Bad was a little more confusing than some of the others with Calladine's kidnapping and the whole sub-plot surrounding that, the drugs being sold across the area AND two gruesome murders on top if it, although it did give us a new insight into Ruth and her capabilities in leading a team.
One thing that made me dock a whole star from this story was the complete (pardon the pun) cop out the author took when it came to the arguments between Ruth and her romantic partner. Throughout this entire story (and even in the one prior if I remember correctly) they are at odds whether or not to move because of his job. And then *spoiler* happens and it felt like a slap in the face. There was no resolution between the pair, no fight that I would have had with my own partner even with the circumstances. It was just a matter of this is what happened and now it's over and done. Very unsatisfying for me.
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Dead Bad is available from Amazon.com
(for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited)
 by Helen H. Durrant){kind=link}
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