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Lewis, Kevin - 'Scent of a Killer'
Paperback: 464 pages (June 2010) Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0141030119

DI Stacey Collins is being interviewed by the Metropolitan Police's Internal Affairs Department because of her relationship with the notorious underworld villain, Jack Stanley. She tells them he is her informer because they grew up together on the same London estate. But what she doesn't tell them is that he is the father of her thirteen-year-old daughter Sophie.

Whilst this investigation is going on, three male bodies are found in a parked car, they have been murdered and dismembered. It is eventually established that these men were predators and this serial killing is some sort of vigilante murder. Stacey's boss is at first reluctant to give her a leading role in the investigation. However thanks to the help from her friend, pathologist Dr Jessica Matthews she starts to get accepted. Complications come when a Canadian professor - a profiler - Dr Jacques Bernard joins the team and is attracted to Stacey. Even more complications ensue when Sophie realises who her father is and wants to spend time with him. There are a few false leads before Stacey realises who the killer is, but then puts the lives of those close to her in danger.

This is the second book featuring DI Collins by the author, who has also written four other books, two of which were based on his deprived upbringing on a very poor south London council estate. Considering his background Mr Lewis has achieved a great deal.

I found this book a quick, easy, read but couldn't really warm to the characters. The teenaged Sophie seemed to talk as though she was in her twenties. The murderer was fairly easy to identify and I felt that some of the scenes and dialogue were not credible, particularly the use of the internet by the murderer which the police were unable to trace.

Geoff Jones, England
November 2010

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last updated 5/11/2010 20:22