Book Review: A MEANS OF ESCAPE BY JOANNA PRICE

Genre:  Thriller

Published:  Aston Bay  (Oct 2011)

Source:  BookDagger RealReaders

My Rating:  8.5/10

About the Book:

A grizzly and cold November morning. Detective Sergeant Kate Linton is called on Glastonbury Tor where a young woman has been strangled. Twelve holes are found at the scene, surrounded by wax, evidence of garden flares - the only connection to two other unsolved cases. When another young woman and a TV celebrity go missing, Linton is in a race against time to find the serial killer before he strikes again. But, when her journalist ex-boyfriend is singled out as a chief suspect, Linton feels that events are heading a bit too close to home.

This is a very promising start of a new police series set in Glastonbury featuring DS Kate Linton who  has a challenging task -- to find the killer of three young women and a third missing girl who has been kidnapped, possibly by the killer.

Just to make her job more complicated, a reality TV star also goes missing in Glastonbury at the same time, but is this just coincidence or has the killer now kidnapped two women as well?

Kate, newly single since her split with her boyfriend, is confronted with the embarrassment of a past liaison in the shape of a local journalist who becomes a suspect.  Her strained relationship with her male colleague changes as the case progresses which adds an interesting light touch to the dark storyline.

As the police search continues we are given several tantalising glimpses of just what's going on in the head of the kidnapper by the way he talks to his kidnap victim, which didn't make any sense until the reveal.

Joanna Price kept the suspense building until the very end when all the answers to the questions are neatly tied up -- I didn't guess the ending!

Altogether, an unpredictable storyline that features characters that I'd like to read about again as this series develops.