The Girl in the Ice by Robert Bryndza

The body of a beautiful young socialite has been found beneath the ice in a South London park by a young man following the sound of a ringing iPhone. DCI Erika Foster has been called in to head the murder investigation after the body has been identified as that of Andrea Douglas-Brown whose father is thee Sir Simon Douglas-Brown, millionaire business man and member of the House of Lords.

Erika believes Andrea had many secrets, and it is those secrets that will hold the key to her murder, but she finds her investigation into Andrea's private life is a no-go area as far as her superiors and Andrea's father are concerned. However, Erika is not one to allow convention or internal police politics to hold her back, and she soon finds herself suspended from duty and removed from the investigation, just as she is beginning to get somewhere. Erika believes the person responsible for Andrea's murder has killed before and they should now be hunting a vicious and dangerous serial killer. The question is, will Erika be his next victim?

This was a brilliant book. I was gripped from start to finish and even found myself resenting those moments where I had to do mundane things like sleep, when I really wanted to read this book!

In Erika Foster, Robert Bryndza has found the perfect protagonist. Feisty, spirited, and troubled Erika will do whatever it takes to fight evil and bring the guilty to justice. I just loved her, and her police colleagues.

I came to this book late, but i'm really delighted about that because it means I will soon be reading books two and three in the series and which I already have waiting for me on my Kindle. 'The Night Stalker' and 'Dark Water', so i'm a lucky girl! And if they are half as good as 'The Girl in the Ice', I am in my element.

Many thanks to the publishers Bookouture for this arc, via NetGalley.

Murder on the Marsh by Anne Penketh

First a little boy has been found murdered, his heart cut out. Now a woman's body has been found. Everything is pointing to a serial killer on the loose in Glaveny, a quiet Norfolk village. The police are under pressure to find a killer before he kills again. For Detective Inspector Sam Clayton this case has arrived just when his personal life lies in tatters, and he struggles with anger issues.

I enjoyed this book, the first of a new crime series, with DI Sam Clayton in charge of a team of police which also includes DS Neil Pringle and DS Julie Everett, both of whom are struggling with difficult personal lives of their own. In fact, I did at times find I was more interested in the private lives of the police officers than I was in finding out who the murderer was. We were presented with several possible suspects, but I didn't really care who committed the murder, because the victim came across as a horrible woman. A woman dabbling in the occult, and messing with the heads of those around her.

I'm interested in reading the second book, because I want to find out how things are with DI Sam, DS Neil and of course DS Julie, and should they be out fighting crime while they struggle on the domestic front, well i'm interested in that too!

I received this galley from the publishers via NetGalley.