The Girls Next Door (Detective Eden Berrisford Crime Thriller, #1)

by Mel Sherratt

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I purchased this book from Amazon when it was on offer recently for 99p. Now I don’t usually read Crime books but I’m not exactly sure why. I love watching crime TV shows. I have or currently do watch Criminal Minds, NCIS (the original along with the LA and New Orleans spin offs), CSI, CSI NY etc. So I was thinking to myself if I watch these shows I can’t think of a reason not to at least try crime books.

So with this mission I decided to start with this book. The second book in this series has recently been published and I saw a lot of chatter on twitter about it and thought I would start at the beginning of the series. Well I have to say I don’t know why I’ve never read crime books before. I struggled to put the book down.

There was quite a lot going on in this book but it all worked together well. At the beginning of this book a teenager is killed by a group of teenagers. The main part of this book is set the weekend before the trial.

The story focuses on Jess and her Aunt Eden. Jess is kidnapped and Detective Eden Berrisford uses the whole force to try to find her. I really felt the emotion coming from Jess and her family while she was kidnapped.

I liked and loathed Jess at times. She is feisty and was definitely going to go down fighting. I liked her determination and spirit. I didn’t like some of the things she has done. I found Eden to be very practical at work. She is good at her job and knows exactly what to say to get the information she needs.

While I had an incline as to where the story was going I could not have predicted who the kidnapper was. I was constantly guessing and I didn’t expect the reason to be what it was.

This was a gripping story that keeps you guessing until all is revealed. I enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading more in this series.