She Treads Softly: A Soul for a Soul

Thursday, January 18, 2024

A Soul for a Soul

A Soul for a Soul by Carol Wyer
1/30/24; 381 pages
Thomas & Mercer
Detective Kate Young #5

A Soul for a Soul by Carol Wyer is a recommended procedural and the fifth book in the Detective Kate Young series.

Kate Young is now DCI after her mentor and father-figure William Chase was killed. She misses him greatly as she does her murdered husband, Chris. Kate is also full of guilt over a death she played a role in, that of Superintendent John Dickson. DI Harriet Khatri, who is awaiting trial for William's murder, contacts Kate proclaiming her innocence. She believes evidence was tampered with and begs Kate to look into it. Kate is also doing her own separate investigation after receiving anonymous photographic evidence implicating her. She is determined to take the syndicate down and stop them once and for all.

Now Emma Donaldson is promoted to DI and takes on the investigation after a woman's body is found on the site of a new housing development. The case becomes that of a serial murderer/robber who incapacitates his victims with a powerful narcotic called Devil’s Breath and then robs them. The investigation is complicated by people withholding the truth from her. Emma's life partner, DI, Morgan Meredith, is involved with Operation Moonbeam into people trafficking. Their relationship is under a lot of stress because they are both so busy.

There are two complicated investigations being conducted in this well-paced procedural. Following Emma as she takes on the position of Acting DI is very compelling and satisfying. Although I have read one previous book in the series, it is clear that following the entire series in the order which it is written would be preferable for those interested in it.

What pulled this novel down for me were the two voices talking to Kate in her head, William and Dickson, and her replying to them. This was overdone, distracting, and quit frankly, a bit disturbing. Think about it, she is hearing voices in her head frequently and sometimes replies to them verbally. The plot device of her auditory hallucinations is likely being used to show how she has been traumatized and is under great stress, but it felt way too overused to me and became disconcerting.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.