I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Silent Dead by Marnie Riches Also by this author: The Lost Ones
Series: Detective Jackie Cooke #2
Also in this series: The Lost Ones
Published by Bookouture on 1st November 2022
Genres: Crime, Suspense, Thriller
Pages: 289
Format: eARC
Source: from Netgalley
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She was lying as if asleep on the wooden kitchen floor, beneath the fridge covered with a child’s colourful crayon drawings. But her frozen expression showed she would never wake again…
When Detective Jackie Cooke is called out to the scene, she’s expecting a routine check. The bottle of pills on the kitchen table, next to the note with the single word SORRY written in a shaky hand, make it seem obvious what’s happened. But Jackie is shocked when she recognises her old schoolfriend Claire – and she is convinced Claire would never take her own life.
Determined to dig deeper, Jackie soon discovers evidence that proves her right: a roll of notes has been thrust down the victim’s throat. And when she finds another woman killed in the same way, she realises someone may be targeting lonely single mothers. As Jackie talks to Claire’s distraught children, one of them too young to understand his mummy is never coming home, she vows to find answers.
Both victims were in touch with someone calling himself Nice Guy – could he be the killer? Pursuing every clue, Jackie is sure she’s found a match in dead-eyed Tyler, part of a dark world of men intent on silencing women for daring to reject them. But just as she makes the arrest, another single mother is found dead – a woman who never dated at all.
Forced to re-evaluate every lead she has, with her boss pressuring her to make a case against the obvious suspect, Jackie knows she is running out of time before another innocent woman is murdered. And, as a single mother herself, she cannot help but wonder if she is in the killer’s sights. Can she uncover his true motivation and put an end to his deadly game… or will he find her first?
Thank you to Bookouture for my copy of this book via Netgalley and for letting me take part in this tour. This is the second book in the Jackie Cooke series. The first book was extremely creepy so I knew exactly what I was letting myself in for with this second book and it didn’t disappoint.
This book kicks off a few months after the first one but it’s really not necessary to have read book one, as with most police procedurals. I really like Jackie Cooke. I feel for her. Single mum to 3 children with a co-parent who is useless and selfish while also trying to hold down a detective job. When does the poor woman sleep?
The case itself was extremely fascinating. It surrounds INCELS. This is a fairly new terminology for something that I think has been around for a while without being formally discussed. Those that identify as INCELS are people that I can’t quite understand. I am someone that will ask a million questions until I understand something fully but this topic is one I don’t think I will be jumping down the rabbit hole of anytime soon. I need to sleep at night and I think delving deeper will ruin that for me.
The story was well paced and engaging and tense. I frantically raced through the story as I just needed to know what was going to happen. It’s also realistic about Jackie and her daily struggles.
I look forward to the next instalment in the series.
About Marnie Riches
Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in north Manchester. Exchanging the spires of nearby Strangeways prison for those of Cambridge University, she gained a Masters in German & Dutch. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist and professional fundraiser.
Her best-selling, award-winning George McKenzie crime thrillers were inspired by her own time spent in The Netherlands. Dubbed the Martina Cole of the North, she has also authored a series about Manchester’s notorious gangland as well as two books in a mini-series featuring quirky northern PI Bev Saunders.
Detective Jackson Cooke is Marnie’s latest heroine to root for, as she hunts down one of the most brutal killers the north west has ever seen at devastating personal cost.
When she isn’t writing gritty, twisty crime thrillers, Marnie also regularly appears on BBC Radio Manchester, commenting on social media trends and discussing the world of crime fiction. She is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Salford University’s Doctoral School and a tutor for the Faber Novel Writing Course.
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