Taboo (Csi Reilly Steel, #1)

by Casey Hill

Prepare to be chilled to the bone…

Forensic investigator Reilly Steel, Quantico-trained and California-born and bred, imagined Dublin to be a far cry from bustling San Francisco, a sleepy backwater where she can lay past ghosts to rest and start anew. She's arrived in Ireland to drag the Irish crime lab into the 21stcentury, plus keep tabs on her Irish-born father who's increasingly seeking solace in the bottle after a past family tragedy.

But a brutal serial killersoon puts paid to that. When a young man and woman are found dead in an apartment, the gunshot wounds on their naked bodies suggest a suicide pact. But Reilly's instincts are screaming that something's seriously amiss, and as more bodies are discovered, the team soon realises that a twisted murderer is at work, one who seeks to upset society's norms in the most sickening way imaginable…

• ISBN10: 0857202391
• ISBN13: 9780857202390
• Publish Date: 31 January 2011
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 April 2014
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Edition: EXPORT/IRELAND
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

When I’m not busy reading Chick Lit novels (which is a very rare space of time, let me tell you), my go-to genre is crime fiction, preferably American crime fiction (I don’t know why; don’t ask). Tess Gerritsen is a favourite, with Chelsea Cain and Jilliane Hoffman being new additions. So when I heard much-loved Chick Lit author Melissa Hill was collaborating with her husband Kevin on a crime novel under the name of Casey Hill, I was thrilled and very eager to read it. I was thrilled to get an early proof copy, and I couldn’t wait to settle down with Taboo.

For the most part, I enjoyed Taboo. It had all the elements I enjoy in a crime novel: a decent serial killer (always essential), a weird MO (again, essential), and the main character of the novel, Reilly Steel in this case, being seemingly taunted by said serial killer (expected). But unlike when I read The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen, I found the suspense missing. I wasn’t terrified. My heart didn’t pound as the novel wore on. The writing was fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t as gripped as I’d have liked. It’s strange. I mean, I should probably tell you that I AM rather difficult to scare because I’m just not someone who scares easily. I can quite easily sit and watch a violent film and see people murdered without worrying about my own safety, and the same goes for novels so I suppose that could just be why.

Despite my lack of scaredy-cat tendencies, I did find the novel to be very readable. I whizzed through the 400 pages in just two days. The writing style was really great and I would never in a million years have guessed this was part-written by Melissa Hill as it’s entirely different to her Chick Lit novels (do not even think of ‘duh’ing at me. I know they’re different genres, but the writing style is different, too, and that is a surprise because she’s the same writer so I assumed there’d be tell-tale sentences and things, but there wasn’t!). I thought they had the plot down pat, and I found Reilly’s investigation, along with that of the detective’s, fascinating. Reilly Steel is definitely a heroine you can root for and Chris Delaney is, potentially, a love interest; surprisingly, there was no romance at all in the novel, although if this does expand to more than two novels I can see Reilly and Chris definitely being explored more. I can see the chemistry, anyway. I liked that Reilly’s investigative team were really included in the novel, too, and I can’t wait to see more from them.

Taboo was a fascinating read, and the team of Kevin and Melissa works wonderfully and I do hope it continues past the second novel which is out next Summer (why so far?). It has the potential to become just as big a series as any other crime writer out there and it’s Dublin setting is somewhat unique (well, it is to me anyway). I did guess whodunnit, though I suspect that was a deliberate act. I was a bit disappointed there was no big twist – it’s what Melissa’s famous for after all! – but there’s definitely a chance that any kind of big twist could be contrived in a crime novel, so perhaps it was for the best. I’m inordinately pleased Kevin and Melissa decided to explore the dark side of fiction, and I look forward to the second Reilly Steel book. It might not have scared me, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless.