Black Summer by MW Craven

Description from Amazon:

Jared Keaton, chef to the stars. Charming. Charismatic. Psychopath . . . He’s currently serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his daughter, Elizabeth. Her body was never found and Keaton was convicted largely on the testimony of Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.

So when a young woman staggers into a remote police station with irrefutable evidence that she is Elizabeth Keaton, Poe finds himself on the wrong end of an investigation, one that could cost him much more than his career.

Helped by the only person he trusts, the brilliant but socially awkward Tilly Bradshaw, Poe races to answer the only question that matters: how can someone be both dead and alive at the same time?

And then Elizabeth goes missing again - and all paths of investigation lead back to Poe.

 

Okay, you’ll have to indulge me with this author. After all, I have only just discovered him, and since the first book was so good, I have to read as many as I can get my hands on!

The book opens with an appalling food scene. And by appalling I mean I really hope it’s made up and not some awful practice somewhere. You have Jared Keaton – supposed food magician but also crazy-as-a-loon chef. He is meant to have murdered his daughter, Elizabeth, and Poe managed to put him behind bars. Elizabeth has resurfaced to prove she is alive, but then goes missing again. So now Keaton could be freed and Poe entirely discredited. But Poe is still convinced Keaton is a psychopath.

So begins a tale of a twist on a turn on a twist. I love how the author takes you on a ride you never expected, and there are so many clues leading to each other or bouncing off each other that sometimes it’s quite something to keep track of it all. I think that might be the only thing about these books that doesn’t sit well. The fact that normally with a thriller the reader is given the clues, albeit scattered, and then we all go “Oh I didn’t see that coming.” But with these books, Poe (and my awesome supersleuth, Tilly) connects something and only later do we as readers get told what the connection was. It all makes sense in the end but we aren’t allowed to piece the puzzle together ourselves. It doesn’t stop me enjoying the books though!

I liked the introduction of Estelle (whoops, I might have gotten her name wrong but I’ll get it right in the next review) in the mortuary, and the way she is described and the processes she uses are highly entertaining. She’d probably kick my butt with her heels for that.

The investigation Poe undertakes to try to refute the blood draw proving Elizabeth is who she says she is makes every stumbling block he encounters ingenious. And creating Keaton’s timeline and linking it back to his cooking had me exhausted. I love how all the characters work so well off each other and that by now Poe and Bradshaw’s relationship is cemented in that easy to predict what you need kind of way. And bringing Poe’s dog, Edgar, into it? Yes, please!

Great story, great writing, great idea, great investigation and reworking what needed to be reworked, great reading. Next one, please!