Taunting the Dead (Ds Allie Shenton, #1)

by Mel Sherratt

[Leah]

I’ve really been getting in to crime thrillers lately, and trying out lots of new authors I wouldn’t usually try, but I find that I’m actually enjoying finding new authors to read. It’s opening up a whole new reading world for me, which is a good thing (except for my bank balance, obvs). One such new author is Mel Sherratt, a very, very successful crime author if the reviews are to be believed, and someone who started out self-publishing before being picked up by Amazon.

Taunting The Dead is Sherratt’s first “Allie Shenton” novel and it’s quite the novel to wrap your head around – there are literally loads of characters to keep track of, and at times, I did forget who certain people were. It all centers on the Ryder family. Terry and Steph Ryder are purportedly a happily married couple, but both keep secrets from each other; Terry has some dodgy dealings, and, Steph winds up dead. The question is who killed her, and there are A LOT OF SUSPECTS, folks. A LOT. In fact I was never quite sure who had done it.

I quite enjoyed Taunting The Dead. It’s a very long book, which means it does begin to lack in the middle, especially as it takes until the middle of the book for Steph to wind up dead (well, she’s dead in the Prologue, but then it spools backwards so we get the build up to her death) and then the second half focuses on who did it. I had rather mixed feelings about Allie Shenton, out lead character. I liked her, sure, but I never understood the whole attraction thing between herself and Terry. It was icky. She suspected him of doing bad things, he was under investigation of doing bad things, and yet there she was, flirting with him and thinking about him etc. Honestly, it was unprofessional. To be brought in to Terry’s mind games made me lose a bit of respect for her; she should have known better, and should have reacted better, too. Apart from that, it was a very entertaining read. I’ve never read a book with so many baddies before, and it was mildly amusing to see them all doing their gangsta thang. ;)

I’m very curious to see where the series goes. I have the next book Follow The Leader to read, and I’m very interested to learn more about Allie’s sister and her attack. The end of Taunting The Dead definitely teased that there’s a lot more to come from that end, so we will have to see.