“A gripping and heart-pounding crime thriller”
- Book: One Perfect Grave
- Location: Stillwater
- Author: Stacy Green
All the other fictional detectives need to move aside a little and make space for another first class investigator to take her place amongst them. I have to say that I just couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, in my eagerness to get to the end of the book and discover who the murderer was, after I had been tripped up by enough red herrings to cause severe injury to my pride!
This one had it all. It opened straight up into the action; the storyline never let up for one second; and the ending, whilst I didn’t get to accuse the right suspect, kept me on the edge of my seat. Oh! and just for good measure, although only by the skin of her teeth, Nikki manged not to get herself killed. She lives to fight another day – Book #3 please Stacy, anytime you’re ready!
I am still in two minds about going back to read book #1, but only for the case itself, as Stacy did such a great job of filling in the backstory without making it too overpowering for any existing reader who is already following the series, that I really felt like I already knew Nikki personally and could tell what she was thinking and how she was feeling. It goes without saying that she has enough emotional baggage to more than fill the average family suitcase and she sure doesn’t like to make her private life easy for herself. However she never takes her eye off the ball when it comes to work, even if the lines become a little blurred around the edges sometimes!
This compelling and multi-layered storyline is wonderfully textured, rich in atmosphere and constantly has the tension ratcheted up a notch at a time, as the well constructed and intense investigation draws to a climax. Particularly important to the team, as this investigation involves children and especially as Nikki is a mother herself, is their determination to achieve closure for the families with as much compassion, tact, diplomacy and thoughtful consideration as possible. Although this is made all the more difficult given the eventual and dramatic final turn of events, and the fact that other law enforcement teams in the area seem so hellbent on causing as much internal division and distrust as possible. When the chips are down Nikki and her small FBI criminal profiling team, manage to work alongside the local County Sheriff’s office, without any rancour or ill feeling. However, cross that County line into the next jurisdiction and you do so at your own peril, as Nikki is all too aware from previous personal experience, and some things simply never change!
The gripping and often slightly disturbing, narrative and dialogue was intelligent, crisp and fluid, with not so much as a wasted word. However the whole investigation managed to retain a skilfully written, visually observational and descriptive awareness that was spot-on and detailed enough that I could almost picture myself shadowing the team as they went about their business. I would quite like to have a leader like Nikki Hunt, who handles her team well, who after asking for input and opinions from them, never then jumps in with her own personal thoughts first, in case it clouds their judgement and influences them too much, as she really values everyone’s opinions and relies on collaborative thinking and ideas to solve a case. Although she is also never afraid to override one of them if necessary, so long as she has good reason to do so, and is always ultimately willing to hold her hands up and shoulder the blame if mistakes are made on her watch.
Author, Stacy Green, has done an amazing job of creating a completely diverse range of characters, who all elicited different responses from me. Some I could relate to and invest in all the way down the line, others I just loved to hate, and then there were those I could have cheerfully punched in the nose (or worse)! I guess my point is that they were all so well defined and developed, that I could get inside their heads and see what they were thinking. The synergy between them was raw and passionate, complex and emotional, powerful and vulnerable, but always genuine and believable.
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