All jobs come with hazards.

For mortuary technician Cassie Raven, there’s the disturbing possibility that a corpse on her table may turn out to belong to someone she knew, added to the even more disturbing possibility that the dead body might still have something to say…

What’s it about?

This is a mystery with four women at its centre: Bronte, a talented singer on the brink of stardom, born Sophia Angopoulis to a mother, Chrysanthi, who hates her ex-husband with a passion; Cassie, who doesn’t believe Bronte jumped to her death; and Phyllida Flyte, who is asked to investigate after the initial, cursory police investigation is believed to be flawed.

Cassie is a very modern protagonist: inked and pierced, she frequents gay bars and treats all her mortuary ‘guests’ with a care and respect that borders on reverence. Chrysanthi is devoutly religious, brimming over with anger and despair, insisting that Bronte would never have killed herself. Meanwhile, despite currently working for the Office for Police Conduct, former DC Flyte is learning that, sometimes, there may be grey areas among the black and white…

What’s it like?

Highly engaging. Consistently entertaining. Well conceived and constructed.

Although the blurb suggests Cassie and Flyte ‘join forces’, the truth is that they circle each other warily, judging how far they can trust their acquaintance and how much they need to know. The reader benefits from following both sets of investigations and this gives the plot a good, brisk pace as events evolve rapidly.

I enjoyed the developing relationship between Flyte and DI ‘Streaky’ Bacon, as he turned out to be a little bit different than she anticipated. I wished Cassie would take more precautions to keep herself safe and was pleased with the way various storylines developed. There’s a good range of possibilities explored and discarded, making the final events both hard to predict and delightfully fitting.

Final thoughts

I was initially wary about the mild supernatural edge to what is otherwise an intriguing plot (how can you tell if someone jumped or was pushed?) but this isn’t a major element of the storytelling and adds humour rather than creepiness, as when Bronte scolds Cassie for skipping a post mortem and when Cassie recollects an elderly lady whose death had come as a surprise and whose final thought appeared to be simply, ‘bugger’.

Although this is the fourth book in this series, I found it easy to read as a standalone and enjoyed it so much that I’m sure I’ll be checking out the earlier three.

Recommended for crime fiction fans.

‘Dead Fall’,
A.K. Turner,
2024, Zaffre, paperback
Many thanks to the author, publisher and Anne Cater’s Random Things Tours for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and a spot on the blog tour.

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