A Life For A Life (Detective Kate Young) by Carol Wyer- Blog Tour

Today I am honoured to be joining the blog tour  for A Life for a Life by Carol Wyer. Thanks to Zoe at https://zooloosbookdiary.co.uk/zooloos-blog-tours for organising this tour and to Carol Wyer and Amazon Publishing for a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis

Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.

When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.

Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.

With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?

Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894

Amazon US : https://www.amazon.com/Life-Detective-Kate-Young-Book-ebook/dp/B09BCPR894

My Thoughts

This is the third book in the Detective Kate Young series, and I would say that you definitely need to read the previous two books first.  I think the stand-alone story of the murder works alone and Carol does summarise the key events of the previous books but without the full knowledge I could imagine that this instalment could be confusing in places.  Besides, you’d be missing out on a brilliant series and the character development and a second plot needs that in-depth knowledge form all the books in order.

I love Detective Kate Young but it’s becoming clear that her life is spiralling out of control.   The lines between her private and professional lines are well and truly smudged all over and her mental health is not in a good place.  Part of me wants to give her a big hug and wrap her in a cosy blanket, the other part wants to give her a good shake and tell her to step away from work for a while.  She’s such a strong character, and amazing detective but really needs someone to take charge and look after her.

Most of her spare time is consumed with hunting down her husband’s killer but that seems to be at a dead end.  So many leads and suspects leading to nothing concrete and with several colleagues on her list of people who could be involved, Kate finds herself with nobody to trust, and nobody to really ask for help.

At work Kate is hunting down the killer of a young, promising accountant with no visible motive or clues.  She has a good team behind her but with her increasing paranoia, she finds it hard to allow any of them close.  The procedural aspect of this book is fascinating and the way the clues are pieced together is really cleverly thought out.    

The Detective Kate Young series has always been really dark and Kate never seems to catch a break.  She was unhappy and troubled on the very first meeting with her and things didn’t really get any better.  I found this book the darkest out of the three as Kate’s continuing decline in health and difficulty trusting anyone really tore me up inside.

An even darker foray into the life of Kate, a new case to crack and twists and turns make this detective novel a thrilling read.  In true Carol style we are left with a cliff-hanger that was almost unbearable and I am now desperately awaiting the next novel in the series.     

Author Bio – Carol Wyer

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.

February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia. 

Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer
Follow her at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carol-E-Wyer/221149241263847 
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/carolewyer 

Website : https://www.carolwyer.co.uk