Title: The Secret Admirer
Author: Carol Wyer
Series: Detective Natalie Ward, #6
Published: April 2020, Bookouture
Format: ARC E-copy, 413 pages
Source: Netgalley
Summary:
‘I tried to talk to you today but you snubbed me and walked away. It wasn’t wise to give me the brush-off, Gemma. I can be a truly good friend but I also make the perfect enemy.’
Sasha’s eighteen-year-old daughter Gemma was all she had in the world. Sasha fell pregnant with Gemma when she was still at school, and the two are as close as sisters. So when Gemma’s burned and broken body is found, Sasha’s world ends. What kind of person would want her beautiful daughter dead?
Leading the case is Detective Natalie Ward, scarred by her own recent tragedy. When she finds a note in Gemma’s diary from ‘a secret admirer’, she moves quickly, determined to un-mask them. But interviews with Gemma’s devastated ex-boyfriend, and her charismatic teacher, who has been seen embracing his student far away from the classroom, don’t give Natalie the answers she’d hoped for…
And then the case takes a devastating, personal twist. CCTV footage reveals Natalie’s estranged husband David followed Gemma home every evening the week before she died.
Natalie is forced to put personal feelings aside and follow procedure, even though she can’t believe David could be guilty. But when Gemma’s housemate is found murdered, Natalie thinks the killer could still be at large. Is she right to trust her instincts about David and can she discover the truth before another precious life is taken?
Grippingly fast and nail-bitingly tense, The Secret Admirer will have you flying through the pages long into the night. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Rachel Abbott and Karin Slaughter.
My thoughts: This is the sixth book in Carol Wyer's Detective Natalie Ward series, and I'm not quite sure how it's possible, but this series gets better and better with each book. Carol Wyer sure knows how to write an addicting and thrilling series for sure - I was a huge fan of her DI Robyn Carter series and I am loving this one just as much.
While I won't say that you necessarily have to read this series in order, as each book contains a self-contained case that is solved within the book, I do strongly suggest reading it in order for the character development. And to me, that is where this series is so strong. There are so many threads that have been carried through from the start of the series that really play a factor in understanding Detective Natalie Ward and if you like that part of the series - the character development - then do yourself a favor and read the books as the author wrote them.
I've always felt that one of the reasons this series is so strong is because Detective Natalie Ward is such a strong character and never have I felt that to be the case than in this particular installment. Coming on the heals of a terrible tragedy - and again...if you are new to this series, at least read the previous book before picking this one up - Natalie is just returning back to work and the case the team gets called to is really going to test her. But in true Natalie fashion she is going to give it her all and then some.
This is why I love this series...Carol Wyer doesn't shy away from the hard stuff and believe me when I say she doesn't give Natalie Ward an easy go in this installment. She tests her again and again and we really she her come to her breaking point on a few occasions for a number of different reasons, but this just makes her more real and relatable. Her team is there to help as well as Mike and I like that not even that is going to be easy. Again - real life here!
This was a good follow-up to the previous book and a good installment in this series. And once again, we are left with quite a cliffhanger...one that I am so curious to see how will be played out. I sure hope we don't have to wait too long to find out!
Books in this series:
- The Birthday
- Last Lullaby
- The Dare
- The Sleepover
- The Blossom Twins
- The Secret Admirer