Silent Angel (Detective Morgan Brookes #7) by Helen Phifer
Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller, Police procedural
Read: 30th September 2022
Published: 28th September 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
The girl’s head is bent as if in prayer, her hands bound tightly together at the wrist. Her bare feet are still against the cold sand, the last thing she ever felt before she breathed her last…
When the body of a teenage girl is found in Rydal Falls’ churchyard, Detective Morgan Brookes abandons her own birthday to attend the scene. In the dim evening light, Morgan can just make out the girl wrapped in a pristine white sheet and is certain she’s been left here for them to find.
The autopsy identifies the girl as sixteen-year-old Shea Wilkinson, and Morgan’s heart cracks with sorrow. The beautiful teenager has been missing for weeks, could she have been suffering all this time? When she learns the sand on Shea’s feet is from a nearby island, Morgan leaves immediately, determined to find the killer’s hiding place and stop them in their tracks.
But scouring the windswept beach, Morgan can’t find any sign that Shea was ever there. And then her phone rings with devastating news. Another girl has gone missing, a young nurse called Milly with the same blonde hair and blue eyes as Shea.
Morgan won’t rest until she has returned the kind, cheerful girl to her distraught parents. But Milly was last seen chatting to one of Morgan’s colleagues on the force… Refusing to think the worst, can she trace the clues and get inside the mind of the most cunning killer of her career, before another innocent life is lost?
An absolutely addictive page-turner! Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Lisa Regan and Rachel Abbott.
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Helen Phifer's latest Morgan Brookes crime thriller SILENT ANGEL.
I'm a big fan of Helen Phifer and was thrilled to dive into Morgan Brookes' latest escapade. Although this is the seventh in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone and you don't really miss out on anything. Although having met the characters from the beginning you are able to get more of a feel for them with each installment so if you get a chance to go back and start from the beginning, then go for it! You won't be disappointed.
Admittedly, I found it difficult to get into this one not due to anything the author may or may not have done but because of the headspace I have currently found myself in with my personal life...although reading is a wonderful escape for the most part, I found it hard to keep up due to my own circumstances. But SILENT ANGEL is still an entertaining fast paced crime thriller and fans are reunited with their favourite characters once again.
It's Morgan's birthday and she and partner Ben have booked the weekend off to celebrate, beginning with an enjoyable and relaxing night out. But the crims don't work regular 9 to 5 hours and Ben had hardly stepped out of the shower when a phone call comes in about a body found in a churchyard...and in the middle of a power cut. The body is that of a young girl but her age is difficult to determine due to decomposition. The post mortem reveals the girl's identity as that of missing 17 year old Shea Wilkinson who disappeared from Blackpool around four weeks ago. She had been dead for around three of those weeks, so what did the killer do with her in the week after her initial disappearance? And since her body has only just turned up, where has she been in the meantime? She certainly wasn't in the graveyard just a few days ago on Mother's Day when the place would have been swarming with loved ones paying respects to their mothers or grandmothers.
Whilst investigating Shea's murder, another young girl the same age disappears after the church spring fete held in the grounds of the retirement home just across from the church in which the first body had been found. Milly works as a health aid at the home and has been excitedly planning her upcoming 18th birthday in which she intends to include the residents of the home in which she works. Morgan's suspicions immediately fall of the new vicar who sparks Morgan's antennae that something with him is not quite right.
But then one of their own disappears and the race is on find both Milly and their colleague before fate intervenes and it's too late. Morgan refuses to give up and continues to search for both of them despite her boss removing her from the investigation and placing her colleagues, partner Ben and sassy Amy on compassionate leave, and shipping her off to another station to work out of. Morgan is sure the incidents are all linked and the same person is responsible for them all. But who? Morgan is determined to find out whatever the cost.
Helen Phifer delivers another exciting installment in this edge of your seat series. I love how Ben and Morgan's relationship has developed and she has bit the bullet and moved in with him at last. I love each of the recurring characters and their unique personalities, bringing a fresh and vibrant feel to otherwise grim circumstances. I love Declan, the pathologist, and his quirky assistant who always has a new hair colour with each book, CSI Wendy as well Ben's own team of himself, Morgan, Amy and Des. The jury's still out on their new DI Marcell (Marc) Howard who entered in the previous book. I think I miss their old DI, who sadly retired, as much as Ben and Morgan do.
I love the location of Cumbria and the Lakes District, taking in the small locales around the beautiful setting I can just about visualise despite never having been there. I always look forward to what Helen Phifer brings us next, whether it be a standalone or another Morgan Brookes. Either way, I'm never disappointed.
I would like to thank #HelenPhifer, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #SilentAngel in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Helen lives in a small town in Cumbria. Surrounded by miles of coastline and only a short drive from the beautiful Lake District.
She has always loved writing and reading since the days she learnt how to in infant school. She loves reading books that make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and make her afraid to go to the toilet, alone in the middle of the night. She is eternally grateful to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert and Graham Masterton for scaring her senseless in her teenage years.
Unable to find enough of the scary stories she loves to read, she decided to write her own.
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