#BlogTour ‘Her Last Request’ by Mari Hannah

About the book…

Some victims leave clues to their killers…

A Hidden Clue

A victim reaches out from the grave to the SIO who will investigate her death. This not what DCI Kate Daniels expects to find concealed at a crime scene.

A Desperate Plea

The note contains a last request: ‘Find Aaron’. But is Kate searching for a potential second victim, or a killer?

The Countdown is on…

Following the clues, Kate becomes the obsession of her adversary who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Will she find Aaron before he does?

Hugest of thanks to the wonderful Alainna at Orion for inviting me to read ‘Her Last Request’ by Mari Hannah which is published on January 20th, and thanks for my gifted review copy and accompanying goodies, including a very realistic camp site leaflet that had my other half looking to book a holiday there (…yeah not a great idea!)

How do you follow the absolutely thrilling, and emotional devastating, ‘Without A Trace’ ?

In Kate Daniels’ case, you move from a disappearing plane to what seems, initially, like a domestic violence case.

Found battered, beaten and bloodied on the floor of her rented caravan, in the middle of nowhere, Helen seems to be frozen in terror at the centre of a crime scene from hell.

A woman, paying 6 months rent in advance, in cash, with no last name given, or I.D checks?

This should have been raising red flags right form the moment she was discovered.

As Kate Daniels. perennially haunted by the dead , and fired by a need to bring justice to them, looks at this latest murder scene and gears herself to apologise, once more, to her wife for being home late-both knowing that she won’t, really, get home at all-she has no idea of the dark and twisted paths that this case will take.

”Detective work was often a hard slog-that was a given-but it was always fascinating and exciting, every shift different from the one before, and the one after. You could never describe it as mundane.Predictability didn’t come into it. Where violence was concerned, trying to second-guess the cruelty of one human to another was an impossible task. And just when you thought you’d seen it all, along came another low to change your mind.”

The difference with this case, what motivates Kate to claim the case for her squad, is a letter, a hidden letter from the dead woman, and it appears directly addressed to her.

This is how the book begins, with the letter directly addressing us, the readers, and the murder team.

Very rarely do the dead get a chance to speak, but this one time, they do. She has written , and hidden this letter, acknowledging a person, HIM, who is after her. She fully anticipates the inevitable nature of death, the only unknown is just how this unsub will make good their promise to end her life.

The last request of the title, a plea to find someone named Aaron, is the killer twist. Who is he? Does he even exist? Did she have a child who is need of protection that she has hidden somewhere? Is it the name of the killer, when she says ‘ find Aaron’ , what does that mean?

So, right from the beginning you start on the same footing as Kate, uncertain as to the identity of Aaron, outraged by the murder and moved to tears by this exhortation from an unknown woman.

And that, my friends, is the hook. I defy anyone to try and take a break or cheat on this novel with a side book, because it cannot be done I tell you.

By page 3, you are emotionally invested and riding shotgun with Kate.

She is professionalism personified, a woman who knows the value of her emotions and uses them to good effect, she does not deny herself as a woman in a same sex relationship, working in a career notorious for institutionalised racism, sexism, bullying and corruption.

Here, here is what makes Kate stand out and keeps you reading-she knows who and what she is and makes zero apologies for it. She stands for the dead, she stands for the integrity of her team, and they know, well and truly, who is the boss. She is flawed in that she has only one speed-fast-, a major flaw in any relationship is her workaholic nature, but this is a work in progress, not a finished article.

This is what has you returning again and again to Mari’s work, the air of authenticity wrapped in a female SIO, who wastes no time placing the victim at the center of each and every case. And with each novel, we get to know a little more about her and her past, slow reveals being absolutely my favourite, and a hallmark of a writer who knows exactly she is doing.

A new book by this lady is an absolute must buy for this reader, and I am so grateful to be running with Kate, and not from her. The woman is an unstoppable force of nature which criminals are resolutely not equipped to deal with.

About the author…

When an injury on duty ended my career as Probation Officer, I began writing. I am the author of the Kate Daniels and Ryan & O’Neil series published by Pan Macmillan and the Stone & Oliver series published by Orion. My debut, ‘The Murder Wall’, was written as a TV pilot for a BBC Drama Development Scheme – before the adaption.

The novel won the Polari First Book Prize. Before becoming an author, I fell in love with scriptwriting and submitted speculative original dramas to the BBC Writersroom. I’ve also written a romantic comedy feature film that I hope will find a producer one day. In 2010, I won the Northern Writers’ Award for my second novel, ‘Settled Blood’.

And in 2017, I won the Dagger in the Library for my body of work. I’m represented by AM Heath literary agent, Oli Munson, and live in Northumberland with my partner, a former murder detective.

Twitter @mariwriter  

Links-http://www.marihannah.com/news/author/marihannah