Perfect Death by Helen Fields

Perfect Death by “Helen Fields”, this is the third book from D.I. Callanach series. Detectives DI Luc Challanach and DCI Ava Turner are back with a bone-chilling murder mystery involving a serial killer who is poisoning victims and giving them slow and cold-blooded death. Even though it’s a third book from the series, it has its own independent story and the author has given sufficient introduction of all the characters which eliminates any dependency on previous books from the series. 

Luc and Ava are facing some troubles in their friendship caused by the promotion of Ava. Luc is still trying to adjust with the colleagues of Scotland Police force while fighting with unpleasant memories of his past when he used to work for Interpol and had to leave because of false accusations against him. The whole event left him scarred for life, even though he came out clean of the charges. Amidst all this, dead bodies and challenges are piling up for Scotland Police squad to solve the mystery of these murders which are, in the first impression appearing as suicide or accidental deaths.

While Luc and Eva are trying to find out the cause of Lily Eustis’s death, The former Chief Inspector and a father figure for Ava, George Begbie has been found dead under strange circumstances. As Ava is digging deep in the past of DCI Begbie to find out the reason behind his suicide, Dylan McGill and Ramon Trescoe, organized crime leaders of Glasgow based crime gang come into the picture. Later when Former DCI Begbie’s informant Louis Jones found murdered, at the same time when one of the crime gods, Ramon Trescoe is released from prison, Ava gets suspicious about Begbie’s suicide and whether it’s somehow linked to Trescoe’s release and Jones’s murder. On the other hand, few more cases of mysterious deaths caused by sudden illness get reported which makes Ava and Luc think that there might have been a serial killer on loose.

The first chapter itself gives the reader an overview of thrill they are about to experience throughout this novel. The story starts with the killer contemplating the plan of his first kill with few spine-chilling quotes like “Killing was hard work” or “Death more often than not, was a slow striptease of show.” The grief, pain, loss witnessed by victims’ closed ones’ are portrayed in such a way that it reached my heart. Helen Fields has good knowledge of the criminal investigation process, which is no surprise considering she had studied and practiced criminal law. The plot of the novel is designed in a very clever manner which starts with various prospects and then eventually incidences start connecting. All characters represented are necessary to complete the story.

We get to see the female lead of the story Ava Turner who represents a very strong and independent woman and at the same time affected by the death of a close friend. And then there is Luc who supports her, despite Ava being his senior he always supports and looks after her. Along with an astonishing storyline, the author has built amazingly powerful characters. The novel is fast-paced. Even though the plot is complicated, the way events are woven, gives a very clear idea of the story. A sufficient amount of action sequences, suspense created around the characters and manipulative skills of a killer hold the attention of the reader.

Finally, about the rating, I would like to give this novel 4 out of 5 Stars. The reason I am not giving this book 5 stars is, that I found few of the loose ends in the plot like at the very end, there is no mention of a detective who was working for Trescoe and could bring possible harm to Janet Monroe. Also once you are through one-third of the novel, characters start to reveal themselves and their intentions and confirm the suspicion of a reader which makes it hard to categorize this novel as a suspense one. Regardless of these negative points, I would like to recommend this book as I found it very interesting to read. The editing of the novel is exceptionally well done. I don’t think the novel is suitable for the audience below the age of 18 because of the violent contents of the novel.