Book Description:
The Damascene Moment – To see into the dark you must learn to open your eyes!
The Harrogate Crime Series – for fans of Angela Marsons, J R Ellis, Sir Ian Rankin, L J Ross.
‘I love words and this author is a master of them painting a picture you can fall right into’. Lynda Checkley ★★★★★
‘Hollingdrake is to Harrogate what Rankin (Rebus) is to Edinburgh – able to build a realistic landscape to portray his characters against – I love the way the characters are evolving, the pace is good and the plots compelling – enjoy!’ John Robson ★★★★★
In Book 12 of the Harrogate Crime Series, DCI Bennett and his team are involved in a missing persons investigation. Basking in his new role as a father, DI David Owen finds the case particularly distressing.
The case is a perplexing one and the team is faced by a web of uncertainty and confusion. The battle is on between light and darkness, the shadows and the Shadowlands. The more the investigation proceeds, the more we are made aware that the victim’s life is not as innocent as first perceived: drug use and infidelity rear their ugly heads.
The team is up against a deranged perpetrator who is well-organised, cunning and enigmatic. As the evidence accumulates, no breakthrough occurs and when a second female is reported missing, the pressure is on. Both Owen and April feel “the copper’s nag” and as time passes, they believe something sinister is involved.
A tragic road accident occurs as a strange form of serendipity. Finally, after some painstaking police work, the case is bought to a close.
My Thoughts:
I always look forward to being back with Bennett and Owen. Owen and his wife have recently had a baby boy who is the apple of not only their eye but for Bennett and his partner also. I enjoy reading of the closeness of these characters as Bennett and Owen are not just work colleagues, they are also very good friends outside of work. It was interesting to see how Owen deals with new fatherhood as well as work as you tend to only see this from the women’s point of view.
The author excels himself with how the killer, kills their victims. I have never come across anything like this in a crime book before so it made it really stand out and as I always say when reading this author’s books, I always learn something new. In this book, along with the police, we have no clue who the killer is so it comes as much as a shock to the reader as it does to them. I’m enjoying Alice’s character who is part of the team and hope to see more of her in future books.
The Damascene Moment grabbed hold of my attention from the first page until the very last. The Harrogate setting is very much brought to life and you can tell that the author knows this area like the back of his hand and having been there many times myself, places that are mentioned I could easily envision whilst reading this book which heightened my enjoyment even more. As I have come to expect from the author, this was another very clever and well thought out storyline which had me absolutely hooked. I always go through a range of emotions when reading this series and I can’t wait for more!
My thanks to the authors for an advanced readers copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.
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