Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan does not wish to linger on the grisly scene before her eyes. Two mutilated corpses. In a church. In Clontarf. Her profiling background screams one fact: this is just the beginning of a sickening message.

Meanwhile, a 17-year-old case is playing out on a TV documentary, the convicted professing his innocence and historical police errors being exposed daily in the media. Frankie’s superior, commissioner Donna Hegarty, makes no bones about who she expects to clean things up – both in terms of past mishandlings and the present murders.

But not everyone working the cases wants the truth to come out. And the corridors of power have their own vested interest. Soon Frankie pinpoints just what is making her so nervous: the fact that anyone could be the next victim when justice is the killer.

The Killer In Me is a fast-paced thriller in which lies are safer than the truth, the past is never far from the present, and the ability to kill could well, it seems, live in everyone.

I received a free copy of this book courtesy of the publisher.

Olivia Kiernan returns with another dark rollercoaster ride through the Irish criminal world. DCS Frankie Sheehan back on duty after the traumatic events in Too Close to Breath. For her second outing, Sheehan finds herself thrown head first into a grisly case far too close to home her liking, echoes of the past reverberating through to the present. Kiernan kicks of this dark novel with a double murder in a parish church close to Frankie Sheehan’s childhood home, while her sister-in-law asks her to help prove a man innocent who was convicted of the murder of his parents and attempted murder of his sister back when he was a teenager.
I was so happy to have the chance to read the follow up to one of the best books I had the pleasure of reading last year. And as a debut book it was unbelievable just how good it was, so much so it ended 2018 as one of my top books. Then came the difficult second book. The Killer in Me easily lives up to last year’s debut and possibly eclipses it.

The murders as they continue are dark, the mystery ever deepening and the cast of suspects wide ranging and seemingly lacking any real connection. Kiernan has crafted a fantastic, tense and enjoyable read. I was hooked from the very first page and found myself often thinking “just one more chapter!”. It was a quick read, the desire to uncover the secrets intertwined in this case driving my desire to keep reading headlong towards the final conclusion.

The Killer in Me is the perfect second book to rejoin Frankie Sheehan in her journey into the murky Irish underworld. I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully written police procedural. At no time did it ever feel bogged down in detail in an attempt to add false credibility to the facts of the criminal justice system. The sense of frustration felt by the officers as the case stalls is palpable and the frenetic energy as the case draws close to an end, the killer close to being unmasked is unmistakable. If I enjoyed Too Close to Breath, The Killer in Me was the perfect way to sate my thirst for more and has only stoked my desire to read more from Kiernan and see what comes next for Frankie and the team.

My rating: