Tastes Like Fear

by Sarah Hilary

[Leah]

Sarah Hilary has quickly become one of my most favourite crime authors. I loved her first two Marnie Rome novels, Someone Else's Skin & No Other Darkness, and Tastes Like Fear is just as fantastic - and just as creepy, and heart-pounding. The D.I. Marnie Rome series has quickly become one of my favourites, and I hope Sarah Hilary plans to keep her around for so many more books, because I will never tire of a book featuring Marnie or Noah (it might be "The D.I. Marnie Rome series" but Noah is just as important, although all this Sol-related stuff kind of had me worried there for a second.

Tastes Like Fear sees girls going missing, and winding up dead, which is only discovered after a car accident, and once again it's up to Marnie and her team to find the killer before it's too late, and they get the chance to strike again. For the second Marnie Rome book in a row, I did not guess the killer before I had finished the book, and it left me absolutely stunned. Which I LOVE. I love being surprised, I love not knowing who the evil person is, especially since there's the juxtaposition of how well the unsub takes care of his victims, prior to their deaths, obviously.

I feel like I could read about Marnie Rome forever. She's such a tough cop, willing to go to the end of the Earth to solve these crimes, and it's intriguing to see her personal life move along, too. Her relationship with Ed is amazing, in that it's so quiet, they're just there for each other, all the time, and I'm sure the whole Stephen thing is going to run a while, because I feel like there's so much more to his story. And Noah! I love Noah Jakes. He's a great cop, he's lovely, he's just the best man, ever and his partnership with Marnie is so amazing. There's no hassle or arguments, they just instinctively know each other, inside out.

I actually finished Tastes Like Fear in a day. I didn't mean to, the same way I didn't mean to devour No Other Darkness, it just happened. Once you start one of Sarah Hilary's books you HAVE to finish it, and I should have known that before I started. But I happily settled myself in for the ride and boy, was it another good one. I now have to sit and wait patiently for D.I. Marnie Rome book four. Now THAT makes me sad, because I want to read it RIGHT THIS MINUTE. To see what Marnie gets up to next, with Noah by her side, and where the Stephen thing is going to go, because IT'S GOING SOMEWHERE (and I'm not sure that "somewhere" is going to be a good thing).