Janet 's Reviews > Follow the Leader

Many thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy.

Follow The Leader is the second novel in the DS Allie Shenton series, the first being Taunting The Dead. For me, this book was a better read.

Here the story is not so much a whodunnit, we know who does it, it's more the perpertrator's story and why he's turned into a cold blooded killer. Set in the city of Stoke it starts off with a murder of a man by a canal towpath, the only clue being left behind is a magnetic letter, which Shenton and her team find baffling. Cut to a couple of days later and we move onto the second murder of a former glamour model eeking out her last few moments before she becomes too mature for the world of modelling. Found by her husband with a second magnetic letter, the police are failing to see connections. As a reader we know exactly the whys and wherefores as the story is told in different timeframes, from the perpetrator's past and present and the victims' it's an interesting tale with a large cast of characters. Elements of the story were obvious, the potential word/s being spelt out as the bodies mounted up were easy to see, so much so I was growing frustrated myself wanting to give them clues!!

Shenton herself became more of a likeable character for me, her marriage, work commitments, family commitments all resonated well with a believable feel of a woman just trying to do her best for all around her. The characters were lively and fleshed out well with a very real throwback to the 80's conjuring some, um, interesting memories of school days gone by!! The tension and pace remains throughout and I read this one fairly quickly to the gut wrenching but ultimately sad end. It's one of those books that I felt some empathy for the perpetrator, life could have been very different had his younger days gone in a different direction. If only. Of course the secondary story of Shenton and her sister is still running and we have glimpses into that .... again, we're left with teasers as this one rolls on, so I HAVE to read the next one in the series to see how that continues. Such a cliffhanger!!

Overall the book is great. It's well written in a way that is synonymous with Ms Sherratt's no nonsense style, a style that says it like it is. I enjoyed this one a lot and don't hesitate in recommending.