Hold Your Breath (Detective Morgan Brookes #9) by Helen Phifer
Genre: Crime fiction, Crime thriller
Read: 30th May 2023
Published: 2nd June 2023
★★★★★ 4.5 stars (rounded up)
DESCRIPTION:
The biting wind whips around the crystal-clear waters of the lake. The girl sits with her eyes open, as if transfixed by the waves on the shoreline, but she has taken her last breath…
When Detective Morgan Brookes is called to Lake Thirlmere one frosty night, she’s devastated to find the body of a young woman positioned in front of the glistening reservoir. She has ligature marks on her limbs, glue residue on her eyes, and her beautiful face is as cold as ice. Knowing only a dangerous serial killer would arrange a scene so carefully, Morgan is in a race against time to stop them before more innocent lives are lost.
The victim is twenty-year-old Jasmine Armer and her mother is distraught to hear that her beautiful daughter is gone. And Morgan is shocked when she learns that Jasmine’s father recently died by suicide at the same picturesque spot. The killer must have known the family. Then Morgan receives a terrifying package at the station of an intricate death mask. She immediately recognises Jasmine’s long lashes and perfectly-plump lips.
With the killer taunting her, Morgan knows time is running out. And then Morgan gets the heart-shattering call that her friend, Emily, has been killed. Ligature marks on Emily’s arms are identical to Jasmine’s. Heartbroken Morgan knows this isn’t the end of the killer’s twisted game, but can she track them down before they take another life?
A non-stop thrill ride from the very first chapter to the final, epic conclusion. Fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Lisa Regan will be glued to the pages of this addictive rollercoaster of a read.
MY THOUGHTS:
This review, like the series, really needs no introduction. It's a thrilling fast paced and addictive series with each book better than the previous, if that's at all possible. And yet this book, as with all the previous ones, trouble has a way of finding Morgan once again. The woman is a walking magnet for trouble that it's no wonder their former colleague Des (who met a grisly end last installment) referred to her as their resident grim reaper. She practically is. And to be honest, as much as I love this series, the amount of scrapes Morgan gets herself into with every book I'm surprised she is still standing and it's getting a little wearing. But more on that further on...
Set in the picturesque Lake District on the banks of Lake Thirlmere (which is actually a resevoir but lake sounds so much more inviting), local response officer patroling the area comes across the body of a young woman in her car. It's not clear at first whether the death is suspicious but...it seems somewhat likely under the circumstances.
Enter DC Morgan Brookes and her boyfriend/partner/boss DS Ben Matthews. They get the call as they are about to go home for the night and from that moment on, the pair and their team get little sleep until their killer is caught. They soon identify the young woman and learn that she was a dental assistant at a local practice in Windemere and so Morgan swoops in to question the staff. She gets a creepy vibe off handsome hunky dentist Neil Barnard, who seems just a little too full of himself, and makes a note to follow up on his alibi and run some background checks on him. It's not surprising that he comes back squeaky clean...and yet still her antennae twitches whenever she's around him.
Meanwhile, someone has sent Morgan a creepy mask that she thinks is one of her colleagues having a laugh. Cain finds the mask hilarious even if it does resemble a dead face with no eyes. Morgan can't bear to look at it a moment longer and tosses it. But has she been a little too hasty?
And then the case gets a little more personal for her when someone she knows turns up dead in much the same way as the first victim, also in her car. She knows now that she must find this killer before he takes another woman...but is she too late?
Oh, it has to be said, as much as I love Morgan the woman infuriates me! She's told to do something and she does the exact opposite. She's told NOT to do something and she goes ahead and does it anyway, justifying her actions as being for the greater good and catching the killer. Anyone else who disregards her boss' orders would be done for insubordination and on a disciplinary charge. I know this is fiction but really? Morgan is not teflon. She can't stomp her Doc Martens and give a death stare to get her own way. Nor can she disregard orders which are given for her own good and safety just because she wants to go all gung-ho and single-handedly catch the killer...all while nursing a concussion, a haematoma and the mother of all headaches...just because she doesn't like to be told what to do! The amount of times she gets herself into trouble, abducted by killers, smacked in the head, shot at, wrestled or collided with...in every book and yet still she comes out smelling roses while poor Des asked the wrong person one wrong question and he meets a grisly end. It's annoying and infuriating and not at all realistic. She is, after all, just a DC...practically the bottom of the CID chain.
Don't get me wrong, I do love this series. It is one of my favourites and I look forward to every new book. It's just for once, I would like her to do as she's told and stay in the station or at home and not go off without a word to save the day. She is one person and they are supposed to be a team. And what a great team they are. Cain makes a wonderful addition to their team and he will find his feet soon enough. Amy has grown on me as I did find her a little abrasive at first. I still don't know what to make of Marc...but I guess time will tell. But I do really enjoy Ben and Morgan's relationship and look forward to seeing where the next book will take them.
HOLD YOUR BREATH is a solid addition to this compelling and addictive series. Even I had no clue who the killer was until nearer the end. The plot is tight and the suspense gripping, keeping you guessing with a few surprises along the way. If you've not read this series, I do highly recommend it.
Bring on book 10!
I would like to thank #HelenPhifer, #Netgalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #HoldYourBreath 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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