Only the Brave cover image
What the blurb says: “When one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion. DS Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies. As she delves deeper into the case, things take a personal turn when Allie realises she is being stalked by the very same person who attacked her sister seventeen years ago and left her for dead.”
This is the third book in the fantastic DS Allie Shenton series following on from Taunting the Dead and Follow the Leader. Taking place over forty-eight hours, the story centres around a fatal stabbing – one where there are many people who seem to know something about the incident, but none of them are going to give up that information easily to Allie and her team.
Allie is used to working hard, but this case has more personal connections than Allie is comfortable with. History is dredged up when Terry Ryder’s daughter – Kirstie – turns out to be the girlfriend of the victim, pushing Allie back into contact with Ryder, something she would much prefer to avoid.
The emotional stakes are high in this story as Allie’s sister Karen, whose health took a turn for the worse at the end of the previous book ‘Follow the Leader’, is getting progressively more ill. Allie is torn between finding the killer and being there for her sister. Unable to choose, she tries to do both – exhausting herself both physically and psychologically. But as she gets closer to solving the murder case, there is another danger lurking nearby – a person who’s been waiting a very long time to get Allie to themselves – and as the book hurtles along towards its dramatic conclusion, Allie has to use every ounce of her determination and resolve if she’s to escape with her life.
Slickly plotted and a real page-turner of a read, ONLY THE BRAVE is a rollercoaster of grit and emotion.
Highly recommended.
[with thanks to Mel Sherratt and Thomas & Mercer for my copy of ONLY THE BRAVE]
