Sweet After Death – Valentina Giambanco

Another one that released on August 7th!

Thanks to Quercus Books for the free advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

SWEET AFTER DEATH – Valentina Giambanco

If you haven’t yet, you can read an excerpt on my blog post from the other day! You can see that here. You can also see my review for her book, BLOOD AND BONE, here!

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars!

Last year I started out in the Alice Madison series with book three, BLOOD AND BONE, and I was anxiously waiting for the next installment! SWEET AFTER DEATH was just as action-packed and suspenseful – I definitely need to go back and read books 1 and 2. I started off in the middle of the series and I didn’t feel lost at all, so you can read these as standalones, but you’ll find yourself wanting to go back for more!

We are back with homicide detective Alice Madison and she is joined by DS Kevin Brown and CSI Amy Sorensen. They have volunteered to help the police department of a small town just outside of Seattle, Washington with their first murder investigation. When I say small town, I mean small. The town of Ludlow only has a few people on staff for their police department and there are plenty of town secrets and roadblocks for the outside investigators.

While trying to solve the murder of the local doctor, who was found burnt to death in his car, we also have a subplot that Giambanco takes us on. Samuel is 15 years old and the readers follow him as he struggles while living with an abusive parent. After the murder happens the police find themselves at their door. Is his father involved? Is he involved with other disappearances?

Giambanco does an incredible job setting the scene for us. Ludlow is a small town that follows the laws of a small town – outsiders aren’t welcome and they guard their secrets. Just like book three, I’m still in awe of the detail that goes into these novels. Everything from setting the scene, the characters, and the procedural side to the investigation were so well-laid out for us. As with most readers that frequent the murder mystery genre and the thrillers, it can be predictable on how the story will end or who the murdered was. I was pleasantly surprised with how difficult the author made this to figure out! She wove these two plots together effortlessly and I loved it.

I highly recommend this to those looking for a new police procedural crime series!

What’s your favorite crime series?

–Jess