The gripping new crime thriller from the bestselling author of Before We Met and Critical Incidents
Robin Lyons is back in her hometown of Birmingham and now a DCI with Force Homicide, working directly under Samir, the man who broke her heart almost twenty years ago.
When a woman is found stabbed to death in a derelict factory and no one comes forward to identify the body, Robin and her team must not only hunt for the murderer, but also solve the mystery of who their victim might be.
As Robin and Samir come under pressure from their superiors, from the media and from far-right nationalists with a dangerous agenda, tensions in Robin’s own family threaten to reach breaking point. And when a cold case from decades ago begins to smoulder and another woman is found dead in similar circumstances, rumours of a serial killer begin to spread.
In order to get to the truth Robin will need to discover where loyalty ends and duty begins. But before she can trust, she is going to have to forgive – and that means grappling with some painful home truths.
Book Info: Print length: 415 pages. Publisher: Fourth Estate. Publication Date: 28 June 2021
My thoughts:
Risk Of Harm is the 2nd book in the series by Lucie Whitehouse featuring Robin Lyons, a disgraced police officer who had to return to her childhood home of Birmingham following her very public dismissal by the Met.
If you follow my blog and reviews then you will know that I am reading all 3 books in this series as part of a “blogathon” with 25 other bloggers and hopefully introducing new readers to this brilliant series.
Risk of Harm follows on about a year after Critical Incidents ended and Robin is now working as a DCI in Force Homicide in Birmingham under Samir Jafferi, the love of her life and the man who broke her heart over 10 years ago.
When a young girl is found brutally murdered in a disused building wrapped in a carpet with no ID, Robin is tasked with finding out who she is, why she died and who killed her. However, within a matter of days, a second body is discovered in almost identical circumstances and there is every possibility they are dealing with a serial killer.
As well as dealing with these vicious murders, Robin is still trying to juggle parenthood with her teenage daughter and fractured relationships with her brother Luke and her parents put her under more pressure.
This is so much more than a police procedural story and the reader follows Robin as she struggles to navigate her way through her complicated life. We learn more about her difficult and often dangerous relationship with her brother Luke who seems to be determined to destroy Robin through misplaced jealousy and his racist opinions.
Lucie Whitehouse tackles some very uncomfortable but important topics in Risk of Harm, including racism, grooming and knife crimes, but I felt these were all dealt with sensitivity and respect.
I eagerly look forward to reading the next book in this series Last Witness which is being published in April 2024.
