Death Bed

By Leigh Russell

Followers of this blog will know that I’m a big fan of Leigh Russell and have been following the Geraldine Steel series with great interest. Geraldine is turning into a fantastic series character. Her personal life, with its secrets and frustrations, forms a sub-plot that flows through the four books so far and leaves unanswered questions for the future.

In ‘Death Bed’ Geraldine has moved from her local force in Kent up to London to work with the Met. The challenges of her relocation add a further layer of interest to the plot, and her new colleagues are an interesting bunch, especially DS Sam Haley.

Leigh Russell’s writing is always full of intrigue and danger, but in ‘Death Bed’ we’re taken to some very dark places indeed as the latest criminal to cross Geraldine’s path does his worst. When the bodies of two black girls are discovered in quick succession in North London, Geraldine is dragged into her most disturbing case yet as she has to track down the killer dubbed ‘The Dentist’ by the press.

This book isn’t for the faint-hearted, but I was gripped and it kept me awake at night as I was driven to read one more chapter. As ever, Leigh Russell makes her victims and their families seem astonishingly real and it is this that makes some aspects of this story so heartbreaking.

As ever, this is a well written, well plotted crime novel with fantastic pace and lots of intrigue. My favourite kind of read.

I highly recommend this book and would also encourage you to read the others in the series, ‘Cut Short’, ‘Road Closed’ and ‘Dead End’.

You can find out more about Leigh Russell here.

Reviewed by Helen M Hunt