Lovely Carol Wyer is becoming a regular feature here on Linda’s Book Bag! Today I am delighted to be part of the launch celebrations for her latest book An Eye For An Eye and I would like to thank Emma at Damppebbles Blog Tours for inviting me to participate

More recently I shared my review of Carol’s Somebody’s Daughter here.  I reviewed her What Happens in France here, and previously we celebrated the publication of Carol’s The Missing Girls in a post you can read here. I also interviewed Carol about her writing here to mark the publication of Little Girl Lost.

Published by Thomas and Mercer, yesterday, 1st February 2021, An Eye For An Eye is available for purchase here.

An Eye For An Eye

A killer running rings around the police. A detective spiralling out of control.

DI Kate Young is on leave. She’s the force’s best detective, but her bosses know she’s under pressure, on medication and overcoming trauma. So after her bad judgement call leads to a narrowly averted public disaster, they’re sure all she needs is a rest.

But when Staffordshire Police summon her back to work on a murder case, it’s a harder, more suspicious Kate Young who returns. With a new ruthlessness, she sets about tracking down a clinical, calculating serial killer who is torturing victims and leaving clues to taunt the police. Spurred on by her reporter husband, Young begins to suspect that the murderer might be closer than she ever imagined.

As she works to uncover the truth, Young unravels a network of secrets and lies, with even those closest to her having something to hide. But with her own competence—and her grip on reality—called into question, can she unmask the killer before they strike again?

My Review of An Eye For An Eye

Kate’s on enforced leave but there’s a new case that needs her.

Opening in dramatic fashion, An Eye For An Eye held my attention from the first page to the last. Although this is a new series and the author needs to provide background information about her new lead character DI Kate Young, I thought Carol Wyer achieved a perfect balance between exposition and narrative pace. I loved the psychological aspects of Kate’s character set against the police procedures in catching the killer because it gave me an insight into humanity as well as entertained me. Curiously, having read and enjoyed other Carol Wyer books, I felt there was an added polish to the writing here, especially through her carefully crafted descriptions that provided an even more arresting read. It somehow felt as if the author has honed her craft to bring an added dimension to her settings that I really enjoyed.

The plot is a corker and the more I read the more engrossed I became, thoroughly enjoying trying to unravel the case alongside Kate. As An Eye For An Eye reached its denouement I found my pulse racing. Whilst there is sufficient and compelling detail, there isn’t the gratuitous violence of some crime fiction so that I found the events all the more believable and engrossing. I loved the way the ending sets up future books featuring DI Kate Young whilst bringing this story to a satisfying conclusion.

Having really enjoyed the story, I was left thinking continuously about Kate. She’s a brilliantly depicted, well-rounded character. Her mental and physical health, her personal future, her career and her potential developments have me intrigued so that I feel I have begun to know her but want to find out more. Reading about Kate in An Eye For An Eye felt like meeting a new person who could become a friend and left me definitely wanting to meet her again. I did have one concern about the characterisation. Once the killer had been revealed, I found myself empathising with them so that Carol Wyer managed to make me think about myself as a person as well as the people in her story in a way I found rather unnerving. I think it takes real skill to make a reader contemplate themselves in the way Carol Wyer does here.

Indeed, several aspects of An Eye For An Eye are rather unsettling and this is what makes it such a compelling police procedural. Several forms of manipulation, identity, loyalty, grief and professionalism are just some of the themes that add depth to the read. Certainly the book can be read for sheer entertainment which it provides excellently, but it’s the undercurrents that I particularly enjoyed too.

I thought An Eye For An Eye was a super start to a new series and I really recommend it.

About Carol Wyer

USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer writes feel-good comedies and gripping crime fiction.

A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and demonstrated that stand-up comedian Carol had found her true niche.

To date, her crime novels have sold over 750,000 copies and been translated for various overseas markets.

Carol has been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television. She has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post.

She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy.

When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.

All of Carol’s books are here. You can follow Carol on Twitter @carolewyer, visit her website and find her on Facebook and Instagram.

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