Detective Sergeant Lucy Black is visiting her father at the Gransha Hospital when a body is found outside the hospital. But it seems that the dead man has already been embalmed. Why have an embalmed body been dumped in the river?

Despite not having read the previous books was it not hard or in any way confusing to read the book. Lucy Black's father has Alzheimer's and is in hospital and he will never get home again and Lucy is slowly getting to terms with it. Her mother is also a police and not many know what they are related since she walked out of Lucy and her father's life when Lucy was a child. And, beside the case with the embalmed body must Lucy also help a sister to her neighbor. The sister is in a bad relationship and Lucy must try to get her to leave him without revealing that she is a police.

But I never really got into the story. I felt during the time I read the book that I had a really hard time focusing on the book's story. I just couldn't get into it. I was constantly distracted. In other words: it just didn't keep my mind occupied. I never got into the story. I didn't find it utterly boring in anyway, nor did the character seem boring. But the story was just not that interesting.

Would I still read more in this series? Yes, not only because I own them, but because I still find Lucy Black interesting enough to give another book a try.

2.5 stars

I received this copy from Corsair through NetGalley in return for an honest review! Thank you! ( )

This is the second Lucy Black novel I have read. I like these books as the events seem true to life. Lucy black is a normal young policewoman who does her job to the best of her ability; she doesn't have a black belt in karate and leap from high buildings. Enjoyable story in which one cared about the characters. ( )

DS Lucy Black helps recover a body from the river, and early on, an unusual mystery begins to unfold: the body has already been enbalmed. Why is it in the river? It may have been the first dead body in this story, but it won't be the last. Meanwhile, Lucy tries to help the sister of a neighbor, who is a victim of domestic violence. But the battered woman's partner will turn up in an unconnected context later in the story -- too much of a coincidence, methinks? I hate plot contrivances like that.

One issue comes up again and again in this story -- that of the trouble that can come of being less than honest about who one is. The author doesn't actually draw the connections between the separate occurrances of this theme, but it seemed obvious to me.

This was a decent enough mystery. I just don't like this newer series as much as McGilloway's Ben Devlin series, mainly because I don't like Lucy as much as Ben, and I don't like the Northern Ireland setting as much as the setting just over the border in the Republic of Irleland.

They call the books in this series "Lucy Black Thrillers," but I really don't find them true thrillers. They are more police procedurals. In this one, it might have been more of a thriller if the author had written it to give the reader more investment in the characters most at risk as the story unfolded. As it was, peripheral characters were the ones most in need of saving, except for a few brief moments when Lucy herself was in harm's way. ( )

3.5 stars ( )