When I sent a shout out to the three people who follow my blogs (and I thank my Dad, wife, and my Parole Officer for being those three) for some decent fiction I had been given two ‘winners’. One was a train wreck as I didnt realise that Richard Laymon was a comic writer when I thought I was meant to be reading horror, and the second is this author.

Normally I can finish a novel in a week, shorter as I have no career prospects at present, but this book took a lot longer than I anticipated. And I had high hopes for it, being referred by a good friend with an extensive library, and with a name like Slaughter, well surely she couldn’t be in breach of the Fair Trading Act (to those in Europe, the Trades Descriptions Act).

Two girls were killed in this book, one blind, another a uni student. Both of these happened in the first half of the book yet I found it a very dull read as page after page seemed to be used to paint a picture and story of the characters, their meaning in life, and creating a ‘will they, won’t they’ scenario. While I wondered if I ever would finish it, a chapter or two after the second killing the book took a great turn into the thriller genre and was some of the best reading I have had of late; if only the whole book had the same suspense! I could not put it down and was even left sated and looking forward to reading the next book given to me by Gael (thanks sweet!).

I believe this novel is her first and it is a very credible one at that which despite its meandering start is well written and descriptive. But when she wants to turn it on, so to speak, I haven’t been as sucked in to that extent since Martina Cole who would be one of the best crime/thriller female writers I have come across.

Well worth it, and a woman who is not afraid to inject some sex and violence into the story without making either the focal point. Also it was refreshing to read a book that purposely didn’t try to have you believe you had it solved and then throwing a curve ball at the end…at no time could I pick the perp until it was almost blatantly provided right at the end. And even the climatic good vs. evil battle at the end didn’t take on a Hollywood type extravaganza – nice touch. ( )

Not a bad book although the killer is easily identified early on. After the explanations about how difficult it is to get anything viable from deadly nightshade (to make the belladonna all the women are poisoned with) I knew it had to be the pharmacist. It was strengthened when Lena was taken and the scene showed her saying “Oh hi” or something to her killer. Then the eventual attack of Sara and the rescue by Jeffery was pretty clear in the making – no surprise when they rescued Lena either.

The characters were pretty good. Lena is the twin of Sybil but that aspect isn’t dwelled on much. Also, her relationship to other cops isn’t dwelled on much either. There are a few lines about the ‘old boy network’ still present in the detectives she works with and there is some latent racism there in addition to the sexism, but that’s about it. Most of the characterizations of people come from the all-knowing point of view rather than from the other characters in the story. One thing I did notice was a lack of consistency in the way people spoke. It should have been caught by the editor but wasn’t.