Review: Trail of Echoes

Publisher: Titan

 

So, this is the third Lou Norton book and I will just confirm I still love Lou. Land of Shadows was book one and was stonking. Skies of Ash made me fall in love with Lou and RHH more.

 

But, enough about them, on with this one.

 

I'm going to start with the story of the actual crime. There has been a murder (shock horror) and Lou is on the case with her crack team of amazing characters. The crime(s) are really rather horrible and unsettling and the emotions they bring out and other sub plots they encourage are good. BUT, I knew who the murderer was from the word go. I don't know if I'm just a super awesome detective, or if I've read so many crime novels I know every trick in the book and know what to look for. I do hope it's one of these two and not something else. The only real flaw in this book was that I could spot the do badder from the start, so the crimes didn't really grip me.

 

What did grip me was getting to know Lou, Colin, their lives, friends and loves even more. This novel, for me at least, was more about the context and the lives of those behind the crime fighting badasses. I enjoy how RHH doesn't make Lou infallible, I enjoy how Lou is normal, how Lou is pressurised, vitimised, troubled by life and not just by her work, as so many other female detectives are in books. She's a real person and I want to be her friend.

 

Overall, I don't think I liked this book as much as the other two when it came to the actual crime part, but I liked the character analysis and relationship building part and am much looking forward to what the next one will be like.

 

Happy Reading

BG

:-)