The Blood Promise by Liz Mistry

 

First Lines from Prologue: Inverness. 15 years earlier, 14th December. The stench as the constable kicked in the door-- rich and meaty and dense, like a felled stag, its carcass left to rot in the summer sun-- should have been warning enough that what was to come wouldn't be pretty.

 

Imogen Clark wakes up on her sixteenth birthday to a nightmare: her parents are both dead at the breakfast table, and their killer has left a note.

Detective Constables Jasmine (Jazzy) Solanki and Annie (Queenie) McQueen join the investigation, but it doesn't take long for Jazzy to feel that the murders are a twisted message for her. Jazzy shares the same birthday as Imogen, and she believes this is more than a coincidence.

When Jazzy makes the connection between the killer and the stalker who has been following her for years, she is forced to confront the past which she's desperately been keeping hidden. She must pull out all the stops to find this killer before she becomes the next victim.

~

Detective Constables Jasmine (Jazzy) Solanki and Annie (Queenie) McQueen have recently been demoted and put on the D (Dunce) Team in Inverness. Jazzy has learned that telling the bald truth isn't always the best line of action and avid knitter Queenie is famous for "Needlegate". In The Blood Promise, Liz Mistry has teamed two diametrically opposite characters into a strong serial killer mystery.

Although I did like the story, I did have problems with the two main characters. At first, Queenie was in-your-face comic relief with her non-stop knitting, flatulence, and garlic breath. When some of her backstory was revealed, I found that I could accept Queenie, but I still didn't like her.

On the other hand, Jazzy, daughter of a Hindu mother and Muslim father, is portrayed as an often brilliant investigator who doesn't always know when to keep her mouth shut. Although my heart went out to this character as her tortured backstory was revealed, she had so many instances of PTSD meltdowns, I wondered how she could be such a good police officer. She experienced so much angst that it often bogged down the pace of the story. (I also wondered how two disgraced and demoted officers could so quickly be put in charge of major parts of the murder investigation.)

The different angle to an often-tired serial killer investigation certainly made it interesting, and I did like the setting. Even though I did have problems with the two main characters, I find myself wanting to read the next book in the series. With the origins of so much of Jazzy's troubled past revealed, I really want to know how she'll behave in a new investigation.

The Blood Promise by Liz Mistry

eISBN: 9780008686437

HarperCollins © 2024

eBook, 336 pages

 

Police Procedural, #1 Solanki & McQueen mystery

Rating: B-

Source: Net Galley