Review: The Pig Pen (Detective Anna James #1) by Emmy Ellis

                                                             

Print Length: 258 pages

Publisher: Joffe Books (August 6. 2024) 

From Goodreads.com:  Carys Brignell is a young, divorced woman in her thirties. She owns a lovely home in Bishop’s Lock — a perk from her divorce settlement — and has a vibrant social life.

One morning Carys opens her bedroom curtains and sees a head on a spike in the front garden. It’s Nigel, her new boyfriend.

Detective Inspector Anna James is assigned to the case. She quickly learns that fun-loving Carys is a habitual liar and serial bed-hopper. She spends most of her evenings in her local pub flirting with young men, including roguish Joshua ‘Parole’ Cribbins, a member of crime syndicate the Northern Kings.

Then another head is found on a spike on the edge of a field. And this time Anna knows the victim . . .

Someone is targeting male associates of Carys — and ‘Parole’ could be next.

Anna wants to warn him. She’s not sure if it’s out of duty or because she fancies him. But getting involved with ‘Parole’ is a risky game to play.

Then Anna makes a breakthrough in the case that leads her to a farm on the outskirts of town. When she sees the pig pen, the penny the killer is feeding the victim’s bodies to the pigs. What she can’t understand is why?

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Right off the bat, I'm going to say that my issue with this novel is entirely down to it not being my personal cup of tea. When I am reading a novel like this one, I prefer not to know who the killer is right off the bat. It's fine if we get their POV, as long as it's not blatantly obvious who is behind it. I like pitting my own brain against that of the investigating officers to see if I can figure it out before they do.  So the fact that we knew exactly who was behind things (and even to an extent why), left me bored. What is the point of watching Anna stumble around trying to put the pieces together I already had all of the answers? Another pet peeve I had while reading this book was the sheer amount of times Anna had to excuse herself to use the bathroom. I get it, that is a natural part of being human, but literally none of the other characters went once. 

Aside from that, I did enjoy the author's writing style. They made it easy to follow along with the story and who was who (even if some of the interactions seemed a bit out of character for me). I do have the second novel in this series to read (I'm curious as it would appear the events of book number two also take place at the Hawthorn farm and I want to see how the author approaches a new story set in an old location), so I will reserve judgement on whether or not I will continue on with this series until after I have gotten the chance to read that one as well.

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.