Murder By Fire by Faith Martin

Murder By Fire by Faith Martin
Publisher: Joffe Books
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Rating: 3 stars
Reviewed Fern

Meet DI HILLARY GREENE, a policewoman struggling to save her career and catch criminals.

David Merchant’s body is found in a bonfire in his back garden. David was a publisher and devout Christian. Who would want to kill this seemingly very decent man?

DI Hillary Greene faces one of her most puzzling cases as she struggles to find anyone with a strong motive to kill the pious publisher.

Then, as Hillary unearths greedy business partners and an estranged son, her focus is diverted when a new team member is targeted by a vicious gang.

Hillary’s under massive pressure and will she finally crack? And if she does, where will she go from here?

DI Hillary Greene is back again. Still feeling a bit low from recent events, life is slowly returning to normal and her team is soon called out to a suspicious death right on their doorstep. An older man is found burning on a small bonfire in his back yard in an otherwise quite little village. With a new team member to train can Hillary uncover who would want him dead?

This has been a really good series and I enjoy how the author keeps it fresh but still consistent. I can appreciate how Hillary’s team is largely stable, but with enough character growth and movement for it to stay interesting and new, I’m intrigued by her newest – and youngest – member. I also enjoyed that there was plot development around most of the other secondary characters, both within Hillary’s team and her two bosses.

The murder mystery itself also was quite interesting, with enough people to investigate and the leads allowing the plot to unfurl at a decent pace I found this to be a well written and thoroughly enjoyable British police procedural style of book. Well into the series, I did find that my emotional attachment to a number of the characters was quite strong mainly because I was well aware of the history, but I must admit the plot in particular stood well and was confined to just this story. I also really do feel that readers should be able to pick this book up by itself and still thoroughly enjoy it without having any of the past escapades under their belt.

An enjoyable and well written novel, this is more of a slower paced book that still moves along well. This is not an action-orientated or fast paced book, but it allows the reader to figure things out alongside the main characters, and I enjoyed that.