Whispers in the Dark
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
Who will heed the call when Death comes whispering? Small time drug dealer, Marcus Stone and DCI Clive Burston had never met until one night in August. By the end of that night, both had been shot dead in a small bedroom in the heart of gang territory. DI Erika Piper is called to the scene but is at a loss to explain what’s happened. How did these two even meet, let alone end up dead in what appears to be a strange murder-suicide? As Erika leads the investigation, another two bodies are found, killed in a similar fashion. One murder, one suicide. But who is controlling this macabre puppet show? As Erika delves deeper into the lives of the dead, the pieces begin to fit together and a number of nefarious characters crawl out of the woodwork – one of whom is almost certainly pulling the strings. A catastrophic event and a personal miracle threaten to derail the investigation. Erika must find the strength to continue, before the whispers catch up with her too… WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS EXPLOSIVE, NAIL-BITER OF A NOVEL: ‘A gritty, chilling, gut-punch of a novel. Chris McDonald’s star is on the rise and DI Erika Piper is a masterful creation. Brilliant.’ Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End. ‘McDonald proves once again that he is not just one to watch, but a brightly emerging star of UK crime fiction.’ Rob Parker, author of Far From The Tree. ‘Wow! Chris McDonald has written a book that will make your heart and head spin!’ S.E. Moorhead, author of Witness X. ‘Emotive, real, compulsive and thrilling! Chris McDonald demonstrates what an accomplished author he is with the latest in the DI Erika Piper series’ Noelle Holten, author of the Maggie Jamieson series. ‘Not only a thrilling mystery, but in the way it delivers its thrills becomes an exploration of grief, and of how past pain can be reclaimed into future joy.’ Dominic Nolan, author of After Dark. ’DI Erika Piper is a great addition to the crime fiction family, and deserves a place on everyone’s reading pile.’ Rob Scragg, author of the Porter and Styles series. ‘Dark, visceral and a worthy sequel to A Wash of Black. Neil Lancaster, author of the Tom Novac series.
Reviews with the most likes.
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S WHISPERS IN THE DARK ABOUT?
DI Piper is pulled away from her partner Liam's wedding reception to take over at the scene of a murder. A good friend of her DCI is one of the victims. DCI Clive Burston and a drug dealer have been shot and killed. The way it looks, if a gun had been recovered at the scene, she'd have concluded that Burston shot the dealer and then himself. But clearly, that can't be the case.
Then another pair of bodies shows up—it also consists of a member of the same gang as the dealer and someone who has no connection to him—or crime at all.
Just what is going on? And how is she supposed to stop it?
DI ERIKA PIPER
Piper's still dealing with the trauma—physically and psychologically—from the events prior to A Wash of Black—and she's picked up a little more on the psychological side. But she's clearly in a better place than she was when we met her. There's a confidence to her that wasn't there in the last book—you can see it in both her interactions with her colleagues and the way she goes about the investigation. She's not trying to prove that she's ready to work anymore.
She still has work to do—no doubt about that—but she's on the right path, and it's nice to see McDonald showing that. It's some subtle work and well done.
Now, how the events of this novel will set her up for whatever book 3 throws at her, I don't know. I'm looking forward to seeing how she deals with it.
SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WHISPERS IN THE DARK?
McDonald gives Erika and Liam some strong moments—individually and together—outside the case, and I was taken aback by how invested I was in these characters before the halfway point of their second book! There were some sweet moments, and a couple that got me a little misty (for both "positive" and "negative" reasons)—I was impressed at how efficiently he was at some of those, just two or three sentences that hit the emotions just right. And then there's the scene that made me say things about McDonald that I should probably apologize to him for.
If he's that good with the subplots, of course he's going to nail the main story. This is a classic mystery—the killer, the motive, how the detective figures it out, how the killer comes into contact with the victims—it's all tried and true, and McDonald delivers it well. But how the killer does it? I don't think I've seen that before (eh, maybe something like it—but not as effectively portrayed). It's a very clever take on this story. The personal stories and the way Piper and the others go through the investigation—the ups, downs, and the unexpected—that's what separates these books from the rest.
It occurs to me, that if you removed the names and the personal subplots, and just told me the plot of this novel, I'd think you were describing one of Noelle Holten's DC Maggie Jamieson . The twisty sort of mix of technology, motive, and execution behind the crimes fits in Maggie's world as well as in Erika's. Fans of one should definitely check out the other—although A Wash of Black wouldn't have worked as well as a Maggie Jamieson book, so I'm not saying the two series are in lockstep—just that two of my recent favorites have some overlap.
Top-notch writing—there's a couple of scenes that are so well described I feel like I was in the room with them—a great mystery, and some characters that'll become favorites. Get your hands on this series, reader.
Originally posted at irresponsiblereader.com.
