Read the first half, was pretty good, then the bad guy got to evil for me so I abandoned it. ( )

Read from March 28 to May 01, 2014

This is the fourth book in Katherine Howell's series featuring detective Ella Marconi and a paramedic unit working out of Ultimo in Sydney's inner west and it's another excellent, fast paced story.

When police are called to the scene of a murder they find Suzanne Crawford stabbed to death on her kitchen floor and her husband Connor missing. Investigations into Connor's past find that no such person exists and the police must work hard to discover whether Suzanne's murder is just another domestic dispute gone too far or whether Connor's past has caught up with him.

What makes this novel more than another police procedural is the back story of the paramedics which are woven throughout the story. Some of the paramedics from previous novels make a re-appearance, but the main story revolves new trainee, Aidan, a wannabe actor with an attitude problem. The author's past experience as a paramedic adds realism to the events and make this an interesting aspect of the novel.

A great read! Looking forward to the next installment. ( )

Paramedics are called to attend a possible domestic, when they arrive at the scene the husband and wife, Connor and Suzanne Crawford, insist it was just a minor argument and that the neighbours were overreacting. The next night the police and paramedics are called back as Suzanne has been found brutally stabbed and her husband is missing.

Detective Ella Marconi is assigned to the case and immediately starts to focus on the missing husband as a suspect in his wife’s murder, only it would appear that he is not who he says he is. So if he is not Connor Crawford who is he? And how can you possibly find him? Infidelity, kidnapping, child abuse, temptation, lies, secrets and more murders all add to the story as the investigation progresses. There are multiple story threads taking place, each intermingling with the main investigation, author Katherine Howell doesn’t once drop a thread, and leaves none of the stories with a loose end.

VIOLENT EXPOSURE is a fast-paced, thought provoking and edge of the seat read that picks you up from the initial phone call on page one and doesn’t let you go until all is finally revealed and the last page is turned. I like how Katherine Howell is not afraid to add background stories with the different characters in her books. She doesn’t just have detectives and paramedics do their jobs, she has detectives and paramedics who have worries, personality clashes, temptations and problems in their personal lives, just like the rest of us, and still get on with the job at hand. Her characters are all complex and spring to life off the pages, even her minor characters have depth and meaning to their appearance.

As with all her books I was disappointed to come to the end, but I don’t have to wait for long until her next book; SILENT FEAR, is scheduled to come out early in 2012 and I will have it on pre-order as soon as I can.
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Paramedics are called to a domestic disturbance at the suburban home of Suzanne and Connor Crawford one night only to have the couple explain the incident away as nothing more than a disagreement and as there is only a very minor injury involved nothing further happens. The next evening Police and paramedics are again called to the address only this time Suzanne Crawford is dead and her husband is missing. Detective Ella Marconi, having recently finished up her work with the cold case squad, is assigned to the case and, with her partner, starts to focus on the missing husband as a suspect in his wife’s murder. They are hampered by not being able to discover much about the husband’s past and then they start to learn about some bizarre behaviour that Suzanne was engaging in prior to her death. Although a very focussed policewoman, usually to the detriment of her personal relationships, Ella is troubled here by her father’s health problems and there’s also a minor but thought-provoking thread involving the paramedics who were called to the Crawford house on the night of the murder.

In my view Katherine Howell has risen to the upper echelons of crime writing story tellers, having now produced four very accomplished tales which just keep getting better. In Violent Exposure she manages the multiple plot threads expertly, keeping each one flowing nicely and never dropping any along the way.The tension occurs at different points in each story line so from the first page to the last there is always something for the reader to wonder ‘what’s going to happen there?’about even as we’re moving on to another aspect of the book. This is definitely not one of those books where you can skim read chunks of it due to repetitive or filler content.

My favourite thing about this book, and Howell’s writing in general, is the way it balances telling stories about ordinary people with the need to make those stories more interesting than the average ordinary person’s life. I often talk about looking for realism in my reading and one way for writers to achieve this is for their characters to be ordinary people a bit like us (rather than the serial-killer-making-suits-from-human-skin characters that we all know don’t exist in the quantities that Hollywood would have us believe). But let’s face it most ordinary people’s lives are not filled with great drama and I think the fact that Howell has managed to create such credible suspense out of the lives of fairly average people shows real skill. This is in part achieved by putting her characters in situations where the morality of their actions isn’t clear cut. You might think for example that theft is always wrong but is there perhaps a situation where it might not be? What would you want the consequences to be for a person who does the wrong thing for a good reason? I enjoy these kinds of themes and think Howell plays with them brilliantly.

The characters in Violent Exposure are also drawn well and deeply, with Ella being the most complex and interesting, even if not always likeable. This description of Ella’s thought process early on in the case is a great indicator of the type of person she is

She was please to still feel the thrill in her blood, the exhilaration of being on a case that mattered. It wasn’t like she wanted people to die; it was just that as it was always going to happen, it was best it happened while she was on duty.

Here she is frustrated at the slow progress of the case and people’s unwillingness to help for what she considers unacceptable reason, worried about her father’s health and her own priorities. When Suzanne Crawford’s father starts calling her with messages from the ghost of his dead daughter it all looks like it might get a bit much for Ella but she’s not the only one experiencing problems. One of the paramedics who was at the Crawford house the night her body was found has an ongoing role in the story and his particularly sad personal problems cause him to do something he would normally consider wrong. Like Ella his decisions and actions are very credibly and sensitively portrayed.

In short then I really enjoyed this book. It’s fast-paced but thought-provoking too, has a cast of characters who are easy to believe and it’s even the right length. My only regret is that I’m now fully caught up with this series and it’s likely to be a while before Howell’s next book is published.

rating 4.5 ( )

This is the second book I have read of Katherine Howells. I will be searching out more of her books. She links the work of paramedics with police work and it is an interesting angle to take.
In this book the secret that Connor held was not disclosed until the end.
You couldn't help wondering what would happen ton Aiden. would he be killed, or die in the fire. What would happen with his and Mick's relationship? ( )