Detective Erika Foster Crime Thriller Book 7
ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: Fatal Witness
Author: Robert Bryndza
Publication Date: July 7, 2022
Publisher: Raven Street Publishing
How do you find a killer who has destroyed all the evidence?
Detective Erika Foster is on a late-night walk near her new house in Blackheath when she stumbles upon the brutal murder of Vicky Clarke, a true-crime podcaster.
Erika is assigned to the case and discovers that Vicky had been working on a new podcast episode about a sexual predator who preys on young female students around South London, staking out his victims in their halls of residence before breaking in at the dead of night. When Erika discovers that Vicky’s notes and sound recordings were stolen from her flat at the time of her murder, it leads her to believe that Vicky was close to unmasking the attacker, and she was killed to guarantee her silence.
The case takes on a disturbing twist when the body of a young Bulgarian student doctor is discovered in the same building, and this makes Erika question everything she thought she knew about Vicky. With very little evidence, the clock is ticking to find the killer before he strikes again.
I’d like to report that this police procedural novel kept me flipping pages and grasping for answers. But, alas, I can’t.
Mistaken identity, and chasing clues from here to there regarding the death of a podcaster describes much of this book.
While it did start with something interesting, it quickly turned into a possible clue/red herring that felt unnecessary. (You’ll know when you read it.) It was a gimmick and not worth possibly upsetting some readers.
Though the plot sounded intriguing, I didn’t connect with the characters enough to care who lived or died. Okay, that sounds pretty harsh, but I really didn’t get to know them enough to emotionally feel the loss.
And though I’m just fine with a police procedural, it felt too one-sided. I needed to feel some connection to the characters. One without the other caused the story to fall flat. The characters were little more than names to me.
Final Thoughts
I’d suggest you check other reviews. This story has pleased lots of readers, so don’t let my review hold you back if the synopsis sounds good or you’re invested in the series.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy and the ability to freely post my thoughts.
About the Author
Robert Bryndza is best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over five million copies.
His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 29 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).
Robert has released a further five novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller. Fatal Witness, the seventh Erika Foster novel, has just been published.
Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands and the third book is, Darkness Falls.
Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.
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