Macabre thriller set in Liverpool

7th June 2017

Day of the Dead by Mark Roberts – macabre thriller set in Liverpool.

Day of the Dead is the third in Mark Robert’s Eve Clay detective series – firmly set in Liverpool. It is as dark and disturbing as the first two… The city really comes to life, but in a way that not too many would recognise.

Eve herself was an orphan. She was brought up by the sisters in the St Michael’s Catholic Care Home for Children, where she was abused (just once) by the handyman/gardener, Christopher Hawkins, who pretended to help her locate a lost cat. She was rescued by Jimmy Peace, a fellow inhabitant of the home who attacked Chrisopher.  He (as in Jimmy) was taken away by the police and Eve never saw him again – though she later discovered he had died in an accident at sea. She thus has a particular and peculiar attitude towards paedophiles. The book opens with two being sadistically murdered on her patch. The public rejoice, but Eve – ever the detective – is determined to bring the perpetrator to justice. The murders are in the style of Justin Truman, the self styled ‘Vindici’ – a London killer of paedophiles who escaped after having been convicted years previously. But is the murderer Vindici or a copy cat? And why Liverpool? And what is the connection to Eve? The murderer makes it clear that she is also the centre of his attentions… And yet she doesn’t even know Vindici.

The story is fast moving and intense. The plot unfolds with many a twist and turn along the way. Eve’s past comes back to haunt her. The denouement is unexpected, violent, and shocking.

The book is an extremely well written, and thought provoking, detective thriller. But, for me, it is so much more… It is set in the heart of South Liverpool – exactly where I was born and brought up. All the street names and locations are familiar to me. If evidence were needed of the power of fiction ‘set in location’ then this is it!

Tony for the TripFiction team

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