Before I Met Him (Di Gravel Books, #2)

by John Nicholl

[zooloo1983]

I need to have a shower and scrub my skin clean after reading this book, it is so dark, intense (!!), gritty, raw and rather unnerving especially when the chapters are from Rebecca’s POV!

Rebecca, when she was six was abused and the abuser got off, none of the family ever recovered from this, especially not Rebecca. She seeks justice against other sexual deviants. It was hard to read her chapters, as she plotted against these men and acting as judge jury and executioner. In a way, she reminded me of Dexter, with her preparation skills and her acting abilities!!

DS Gravel, aka Grav, the officer on Rebecca’s case fifteen years ago, has been told to go away due to his suffering of potential PTSD with everything he’s been through from the first book. (A quick pause, I didn’t get the chance to read the first book before I read this, you can get away with this. However, I am going back to read it because I want to end of.) He is a likeable character, not your normal hot slim fit type of man, but a man who has been on the job a long time with a drinking problem and insane stress levels. He has his demons and who wouldn’t, but he is one of the best detectives. Receiving a call from his superiors to cut his holiday short, he is back on the case when body parts start turning up with a new partner in tow.

This story is dark and definitely not one for the faint hearted at all, and it is hard to ‘gush’ about the book due to the subject matter but it is a page-turner nonetheless and I loved it! (I am not some weirdo or anything that loved the content but the writing and the story…ok I will shut up now!) I haven’t read any of John Nicholl books before, and the covers are so dark but I was drawn to them and now I see why! I will be going back to read Portrait of death and revisiting the characters, and to be honest I cannot bloody wait. I have it on great authority that I may have found a new favourite author…..