Lead Review

  • Book: Fake Alibi
  • Location: York
  • Author: Leigh Russell

Review Author: Tina Hartas

Location

Content

Fake Alibi is another well-worked crime thriller in the very successful Detective Geraldine Steel series by Leigh Russell. We trace the story through two sets of eyes. First there is Eddy, whose mother is brutally murdered. Eddy is a suspect and his alibi does not stand up. He says he was with his ‘girlfriend’ at the time of the murder. But he is delusional, and the ‘girlfriend’ exists in reality just as a person whom he stalks – only in his mind as anything more. He has name for her, Kylie, but this is not her real name. Her name is Louisa. She comes from Whitby and has only recently moved to York to work in a hotel. She is the second set of eyes. The police manage to track her down and she debunks the alibi theory. She remembers thinking she has on occasion been followed, but that is all. Eddy remains a prime suspect, although the husband of a colleague of Geraldine’s is also in the frame. He had visited Eddy’s mother on the day she died. He said it was only to give her some financial advice, but might there have been more to the visit?

Louisa’s dead and battered body is then found wrapped in a duvet by the side of a road. How has she died and who has wrapped the body and left it? What, if any, was the connection to the murder of Eddy’s mother? Were there two killers loose in York, or were both deaths the work of the same person?

Eddy’s cousin now appears on the scene. He gets Eddy to sign a document whose contents we do not know, so our suspicions are immediately aroused. But what can he be trying to achieve? Geraldine takes a dislike to him – but that is not really enough to involve him in either murder.

The story moves to a brutal and unexpected conclusion in which many a loose end is tied up. Justice is served,

Fake Alibi is an exciting murder mystery with a believable cast of characters. York features strongly as the location.

Definitely recommended for anyone who enjoys a good murder mystery.

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