Before She Falls (Detective Anna Gwynne, #3)

by Dylan Young

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via NetGalley and for letting me take part in this tour. I read the first two books in this series earlier in the year and I really like DI Anna Gwynne so I was excited to see what she was caught up in this time. While this can be read as a standalone I think you would get more enjoyment out of it if you read the whole series. There is some background in the first two books that leads nicely on to this one.

We have met Hector Shaw in the previous two books and we have heard about the Black Squid but this case really focuses on this. We really start to unravel the Black Squid in this story. I enjoyed seeing the background story of the Black Squid come to the forefront in this one. It's been niggling at me since we first met Hector Shaw, like an itch you can't scratch. We get to hear more about what the 'game' is and how it works. It's truly horrifying that there are organisations out there that can so easily reach vulnerable children.

As well as Anna we also have the return of her squad. They are a very loyal hard working team. They reluctantly go home every day despite wanting to carry on long into the night. There was also the new face of DS Phil Dawes. He was an excellent addition and fit in really well with the rest of the team.

We again saw a bit more of Anna's personal life in this book. Its good to see her opening up and progressing her relationship with Dr Ben. Her interactions with her mother are as always strained but Dr Ben does an excellent job of helping her with this.

This story really showed Dylan's style at its best. We had a good build up with more questions than answers. For a long time, it was hard to see the wood through the trees. This had me racing through page after page to get the answered I not only wanted but needed.

I really liked the Epilogue and I can't wait for the next instalment of DI Anna Gwynne.