Don’t Look Behind You by Mel Sherratt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The small city of Stockleigh is in shock as three women are brutally attacked within days of each other. Are they random acts of violence or is there a link between the victims? For Detective Eden Berrisford, it’s her most chilling case yet. The investigation leads Eden to cross paths with Carla, a woman trying to rebuild her life after her marriage to a cruel and abusive man ended in unimaginable tragedy. Her husband Ryan was imprisoned for his crimes but, now he’s out and coming for her.
A well plotted police procedural with the theme of domestic abuse. Every woman DS Eden Berresford encounters has had some sort of abuse meted out to them. And then Eden comes under pressure of her own when the husband who disappeared two years ago, returns. Domestic abuse is a terrible thing and the author made a brave decision to examine it. However, for some reason I had difficulty in connecting with the victims. At times I felt Ms Sherratt was telling us all about how they felt, rather than showing us. This meant that at times there were large info dumps and backstories, which for me rather took away the pace of the novel. 4*
Wendy Cartmell 