Deceived
"Tartan Noir couldn’t be in more dangerous hands."
Synopsis:
When forty-one-year-old Sarah Price is reported missing after having arranged a date with a man she met on the Internet, her son is naturally distraught.
Meanwhile, Glasgow-based Detective Inspectors Kat Wheeler and Steven Ross attend the scene of a murder: Michael O'Donnell, a widower and stay-at-home dad to his daughter, Paula, has been brutally killed. And Paula, who is vulnerable and dependent on daily medication, is missing.
As Wheeler and Ross race to find Michael's killer and Paula's abductor, they are drawn into a tangled web of deceit. Soon they come to realise that the killer is watching them, and is always one step ahead...
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Review:
The fourth Wheeler and Ross novel by Anne Randall and this one is her best yet. The series is going from strength to strength and established characters are fully fleshed out. If you haven't read the previous three, you can read this as a standalone. However, I highly recommend this series. There are many crime fiction novels set in Scotland, but not all are a dark, deep and gripping as this one. Wheeler and Ross work very well together. Ross is secretly in love with Wheeler but this is not a typical will-they-won't-they scenario. Both lead characters have their strengths and weaknesses and, if they were a couple, they'd bring out each other's best qualities. It's obvious Anne Randall is having fun with this sub-plot, teasing her readers. Throwing the smarmy Seb and bizarre Aubree into the mix to keep the two likeable protagonists at arms-length just that little bit longer. 'Deceived' is a multi-layered, intelligent, psychological thriller and there is deception on every single page. Again, Randall knows her craft, and she ratchets up the tension to the maximum with gruesome murders, taunts, and an eclectic range of increasingly damaged characters. At the heart of this novel is the pressures facing the student generation of this country as they come to terms with who they are and the hedonism of the twenty-first century. Identity crises, psychological disorders, popularity, self-esteem and self-loathing all play a huge part and Randall taps into the mindset of a confused teenager incredibly well. Tartan Noir couldn't be in more dangerous hands. Fans of Ian Rankin and Stuart MacBride are going to love this series of novels.