Under a Silent Moon by Elizabeth Haynes

Summary from Goodreads

The start of a thrilling new crime series featuring Detective Inspector Louisa Smith from a sensational, authentic crime fiction voice.

In the crisp, early morning hours, the police are called to a suspected murder at a farm outside a small English village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, blood all over the cottage she lives in. At the same time, police respond to a reported female suicide, where a car has fallen into a local quarry.

As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather the evidence, they discover a link between these two women, a link which has sealed their dreadful fate one cold night, under a silent moon.

An unsettling and compulsively readable novel that will keep you gripped until the very last page.

Paperback, 384 pages

Published October 29th 2013 by Sphere (first published October 15th 2013)
 

My Review
 

Under a Silent Moon is a highly addictive and engaging read. I lost hours of my time each time I opened the book, but I took my time pouring over the details, mulling things over in my mind and trying to work the case alongside the detectives.
 

This is a crime novel that speaks volumes, it's striking attention to detailing sets it apart from the crowded market. I loved the evidence, the case files, reports and even dispatch logs - they give a really complex insight into the case, you can make your own mind up about people and interpret the evidence for yourself.

 The storyline is set the six days following a murder and a suspected suicide. DCI Louisa Smith needs to set a furious pace to gather evidence, but could the murder and the suicide of the woman possibly be linked? Well, that's for Louisa and the team to try and discover!

I was utterly gripped at the evidence unfurling in front of my eyes. Each big blow was exciting and managed to knock me for six. I loved that each little tidbit uncovered lead you down a different path and none of them ever the right one. Everything took quite a while to come together but when it did - it was explosive!

Louisa Smith is very down-to-earth and extremely like able, she is also strong, powerful and an very intelligent leading lady. She didn't have a perfect personal life and her love interests in the past have been...messy! I really enjoyed watching her work alongside her team and interact with others.

Under a Silent Moon is a crime book to get seriously excited about. I was intrigued and invested from the first pages and just didn't want to put it down. The evidence and source material made it for one hell of a realistic page turner, that I can't urge everyone enough to go read. I hope there will be plenty more books featuring DCI Louisa Smith!

4.5 / 5 Stars!

*Spewcail thanks to Sphere for the review copy*