Perfect Dead by Jackie Baldwin #BlogTour @KillerReads @JackieMBaldwin1 #PerfectDead

Today I’m delighted to be on the blog tour for Perfect Dead the second DI Farrell book by Jackie Baldwin and thanks to Kelly Lacey at Love Books Group Tours for asking me.

About this book…

Each murder brings him one step closer to the perfect death.

Ex-priest, DI Farrell is called on to investigate a gruesome death in rural Scotland. All evidence points to suicide, except for one loose end: every light in the cottage was switched off. Why would he kill himself in the dark?

The question sparks a murder investigation that leads to the mysterious Ivy House, home of ‘The Collective,’ a sinister commune of artists who will do anything to keep their twisted secrets hidden.

And when the remains of a young girl are uncovered on a barren stretch of coastline, Farrell realises that there is something rotten in this tight-knit community. Now he must track down a ruthless killer before another person dies, this time much closer to home…

My review…

I really enjoyed the first book in the DI Farrell series so I didn’t have to be asked twice when I was approached to be on the blog tour for Perfect Dead! And thankfully book 2 lived up to the promise of Dead Man’s Prayer, which was Jackie Balwins debut, and confirmed my opinion that this series is definitely worth waiting for!

And what an opener to Perfect Dead! That shocking moment when a young girl realises she has made the wrong decision really hit me hard and from that moment on I was hooked, desperate to see justice done for such a heinous crime. But what is the connection to the suspected suicide that DI Farrell is called in to investigate in the present day? A suicide that is showing signs of being staged due to clues only spotted by the eagle eyes of the investigating officers.

What makes this book for me is it’s protagonist DI Frank Farrell and the supporting cast of characters who felt like returning friends when I met them again here in Perfect Dead. Although there is a murder to solve, there is also a fraud case that may or may not be related and a local artists commune that seems to have secrets to hide from the outside world. But as the narrative unfolded and all these threads wound themselves together, I found myself getting just as caught up in the personal circumstances of ex priest Frank Farrell and his colleagues. The balance between the personal and professional lives of these police officers was perfectly proportioned throughout and both aspects left me wanting more!

I do love the fact that Jackie Baldwin has set her books in a part of Scotland that she knows and so obviously loves. This is a police procedural that will be much admired by fans of Scottish crime fiction and quite rightly so. It’s well worth a look!

Meet the author…

Jackie Baldwin is a Scottish crime writer. Her debut crime novel, Dead Man’s Prayer, was published by Killer Reads, Harper Collins on 2nd September 2016. The second in the series, Perfect Dead was published on 15th June 2018. For most of her working life, she has been a solicitor specialising in Family and Criminal Law. However, she now practices in Dumfries as a hypnotherapist which is where her novels are set. Married, with two grown up children, she has filled her empty nest with Golden Retrievers. She can often be found in a forest walking the dogs, covered in mud and with twigs in her hair.

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