Hold Your Tongue (DI Eve Hunter #1)
by Deborah Masson
Genre: Police Procedural/ Thriller
Published: EB November 2019, PB January 2020 | Corgi, Transworld Publications
Swathi’s Rating: 4/5
Verdict: A spine-chilling serial killer thriller with so many unexpected twists and turns from start to end.
Today I am on the Blog Tour for Deborah Masson’s new detective series that I’ve read last month and been dying to share my thoughts with everyone. Finally the day has come to scream out how brilliant the book was!! If you’re a fan of crime thrillers with a strong, intelligent female lead who is also an intuitive detective, then you must add Deborah’s name to your wish list, as she’s on her way plotting so many brilliant stories to add to her thriller series!
About the Book:
A brutal murder.
A young woman’s body is discovered with horrifying injuries, a recent newspaper cutting pinned to her clothing.
A detective with everything to prove.
This is her only chance to redeem herself.
A serial killer with nothing to lose.
He’s waited years, and his reign of terror has only just begun . . .
Introducing DI Eve Hunter, HOLD YOUR TONGUE is your new obsession.
Swathi’s Thoughts:
Hold Your Tongue is Deborah Masson’s debut novel and also the first of a brand new detective series featuring DI Eve Hunter of Scotland Police. Eve returns to duty 6 months after a terrible accident that led to a casualty on scene and her partner ending up paralysed in hospital. This leaves a bad reputation in the police force and the Press has made sure the story follows her wherever she goes. A still reeling Eve, joins her team with the support of DCI Hastings and hopes she’ll get on with it. But as soon as the hard homicide case hits the ground, things are not going to be easy for her.
Since this is a police procedural thriller, there is enough introduction giving to everyone on Eve’s team, including DS Scott, who is the only friend Eve has on her team. DS Jo Mearns is the substitute to her injured partner DS Sanders, and she manages to hold a grudge against Eve which is hard to break. As you can imagine, there is a lot of tension between the team that Eve has to manage and be authoritative amidst all the media pressure that is steadily building up on the case. The killer makes sure to offer one victim per week, same MO, same victim description.
The first half of the book is full of murders, and lots of questions that Eve’s team doesn’t have the answers to yet. It seems like the chase has only begun but the killer is far ahead in the game and we are left with no clue and totally in dark. Fast forward a few more chapters for the real investigation to begin and the pace rises up.
If you’re a lover of crime scene descriptions, you’ll enjoy the gruesome murders and the meticulous details provided by the author on the on-going investigation along with forensics, pathology, and everything amusing!! The pace of the book is a bit slow at the start but speeds up as the story unravels. The last few chapters are brilliant and totally unexpected and does justice to all those first few slow chapters. I was spellbound as I did not guess for a single moment who the killer could be and totally sunk myself into the investigation. I really like the little team of DI Eve Hunter. They aren’t the perfect bunch. They’re an unfortunate match with many imperfections but I think that will somehow become their strength as they start working on many cases together in future. This book is a perfect serial killer premise to the start of a new thrilling series of books featuring Hunter and her team. Highly recommended to all crime thriller fans who are looking for a new strong female Detective series!
My sincere thanks to Transworld Publishers and Katie Cregg for having me on the official blog Tour and my proof copy. All opinions are solely mine and in no way biased.
Meet the Author:
Deborah Masson was born and bred in Aberdeen, Scotland. Always restless and fighting against being a responsible adult, she worked in several jobs including secretarial, marketing, reporting for the city’s freebie newspaper and a stint as a postie – to name but a few.
Through it all, she always read crime fiction and, when motherhood finally settled her into being an adult (maybe even a responsible one) she turned her hand to writing what she loved. Deborah started with short stories and flash fiction whilst her daughter napped and, when she later welcomed her son into the world, she decided to challenge her writing further through online courses with Professional Writing Academy and Faber Academy. Her debut novel, Hold Your Tongue, is the result of those courses.
