She Treads Softly: A Killer in the Family

Friday, August 11, 2023

A Killer in the Family

A Killer in the Family by Gytha Lodge
8/8/23; 416 pages
Random House
DCI Jonah Sheens #5

A Killer in the Family by Gytha Lodge is a highly recommended murder mystery/procedural and the fifth book in the series featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens.

In Southampton, England, the "Bonfire Killer" has struck again. Three months earlier his first victim was burned beyond recognition. The latest victim did not burn. Even more hopeful for the investigation is that blood was found at the scene. In the meantime, Aisling Cooley, single mom to two teenage boys, decides to upload her DNA to an ancestry website in a search for her father who left his family 30 years earlier. What she has is DCI Jonah Sheens contact her because her DNA is a close match with that of the Bonfire Killer, who apparently is a close relative of hers.

This is another well written novel by Lodge. After a attention grabbing opening, the beginning moves at an even pace until all the pieces are set into place and then A Killer in the Family takes off, racing against time. The plot is interesting, compelling, and realistic while also providing plenty of twists along the way. Although it is the fifth book in the series, this solid procedural works well as a stand alone novel too. The characters are all fully realized and realistic. A Killer in the Family is another excellent novel by Lodge.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.