Audiobook Review: Perfect Prey by Helen Fields

Perfect Prey
by Helen Sarah Fields, Robin Laing (Narrator)

Publication date: 2017
Publisher: Harper Collins 

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Summary:

The second in the terrifying DI Callanach crime series. Fans of M.J. Arlidge will be hooked from the very first page.

In the midst of a rock festival, a charity worker is sliced across the stomach. He dies minutes later. In a crowd of thousands, no one saw his attacker. The following week, the body of a primary school teacher is found in a dumpster in an Edinburgh alley, strangled with her own woollen scarf.

DI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach have no motive and no leads – until around the city, graffitied on buildings, words appear describing each victim.

It’s only when they realise the words are appearing before rather than after the murders, that they understand the killer is announcing his next victim…and the more innocent the better.

Source: Goodreads

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Thoughts:

Helen Fields is the author of a wonderful crime series featuring D.I. Callanach. Towards the end of last year I read “Perfect Remains”, the first in the series and the first chance we have to meet D.I. Luc Callanach and the Edinburgh Homicide Team. The second book, “Perfect Prey” is just as good and I think it’s fair to say that I’m fully committed to this series!

In the opening pages, a murder occurs at a busy music festival. Someone has managed to stab the victim and leave unnoticed in the crowds. There are limited witness statements and there’s not a great deal of other evidence either. Further murders soon follow and D.I Callanach and his team are tasked with getting to the bottom of this ever expanding case.

With the whole of Edinburgh terrified by the increasing homicide rate, finding the killer becomes more and more urgent.

Just like the first, this is a pretty graphic book and the details of these murders aren’t really the kind of thing you want to be listening to on a winter evening walk in the dark (I learned the hard way!). Some of the descriptions are so detailed that I imagine a great deal of research must have gone into them. I particularly enjoyed the author’s note at the end of the book providing a little more detail and facts about one key plot point. It’s clear that Helen Fields has really committed to making her work as realistic as possible, even if that means giving us all of the gory details.

My one criticism would be that these books are quite a slow burn and while I wouldn’t say that there were ever moments where the story dipped, I do think that they are a little long.

I was also a little disappointed to find that the narrator was different in this audiobook, as I had enjoyed the first so much. The narration in this one is still good, though, just the accents perhaps didn’t have quite the same level of personality in them.

This was another really enjoyable read for me and I’d definitely recommend delving into this series if you haven’t already done so. I look forward to seeing what’s to come in the third book, “Perfect Death”.

Overall rating: “Perfect Prey” is another great D.I. Callanach book by Helen Fields. The murders were gruesome and the story was gripping both of which made for a really great crime story! A 4 star read for me!

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See my other reviews of books by Helen Fields here:

• Perfect Death (#3)
• Perfect Remains (#1)

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Thanks for reading! What did you think of this book? Or if you haven’t read it, would you like to? Drop me a comment and say hello!

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