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Broken Angels by Gwyn Bennett
Many thanks to NetGalley and to Storm Publishing for letting me see an advance reader’s copy of Broken Angels by Gwyn Bennett.
DCI Barker and her team have a particularly grisly case on their hands, a case that involves children. And as if that isn’t harrowing enough, some of her team are also battling their own demons.
Broken Angels is the first in a series by Gwyn Bennett, and it’s one I for one will certainly be going back to.
Set in London, it’s a dark story that addresses dark issues and it goes a long way to also show how the case affects those investigating. I really liked the contemporary setting and the modern feel, and I liked the dual mystery element – the one they’re all looking into *and* the one that directly affects one member of the team in particular.
I did feel that the Jack storyline went a bit off topic and didn’t really have anything to do with the main story and that perhaps it was a bit of an author soapbox subject. But the Harrison storyline, I thought, did impact on the main investigation because his experiences made him the investigator he is.
I wasn’t keen on the occasional head-hopping either, where we suddenly switched viewpoint character mid-scene and back again. It didn’t happen often enough for it to work, for me. And I’m old-school anyway in that I prefer to stay with one character at a time.
All of this was balanced out, though, by the excellent overall story and the great characters the author has created.
Gwyn Bennett has a new fan.
Five stars.
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