For Reasons Unknown (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, #1)

by Michael Wood

Two murders. Twenty years. Now the killer is back for more…

A darkly compelling debut crime novel. The start of a brilliant series, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, Val McDermid, and James Oswald.

DCI Matilda Darke has returned to work after a nine month absence. A shadow of her former self, she is tasked with re-opening a cold case: the terrifyingly brutal murders of Miranda and Stefan Harkness. The only witness was their eleven-year-old son, Jonathan, who was too deeply traumatized to speak a word.

Then a dead body is discovered, and the investigation leads back to Matilda's case. Suddenly the past and present converge, and it seems a killer may have come back for more…

• ISBN13: 9780008158668
• Publish Date: 1 October 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Edition: Digital original
• Format: eBook (EPUB)
• Pages: 334
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

I've been reading Robert Dugoni's Tracy Crosswhite series and it's set me down the path of needing more procedurals. I stumbled across this in my Amazon searches and it fit the bill. I liked Matilda. She was a little bit of a mess but I enjoyed the case and the way she came to handle herself. Adele was a good friend to her and reminded me a bit of Betty Rogers in Motive (tv show). I kept picturing her with red hair. Which of course made me think Matilda was Angie Flynn. It was a whole thing. I loved the show and this reminded me of everything I loved about it. It's not particularly thrilling but it is a good solid mystery with enough twists and turns to keep me happy. There were a couple of plotlines that kind of went nowhere (why was the case box so empty? Where were all the witness statements, etc, etc. and what the hell was the whole thing with Ben Hales about - he just went nuts? Did he stab him? Was it a faked move by the other guy? Was he framed? It just kind of fizzled though) but it was decent enough to convince me to pick up the next one.