Under a Silent Moon - Blog Tour Review

About Under a Silent Moon

• Paperback: 400 pages • Publisher: Harper Paperbacks; Reprint edition (February 24, 2015) Two women share a grisly fate in the first entry of this exciting new British crime series—a blend of literary suspense and page-turning thriller that introduces the formidable Detective Chief Inspector Louisa Smith—from the New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Haynes, "the most exciting thing to happen to crime fiction in a long time" (Sophie Hannah, author of Kind of Cruel). In the crisp, early hours of an autumn morning, the police are called to investigate two deaths. The first is a suspected murder at a farm on the outskirts of a small village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, her cottage drenched with blood. The second is a reported suicide at a nearby quarry. A car with a woman's body inside has been found at the bottom of the pit. As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather evidence over the course of the next six days, they discover a shocking link between the two cases and the two deaths—a bond that sealed these women's terrible fates one cold night, under a silent moon. In this compelling new detective series, Elizabeth Haynes interweaves fictional primary source materials—police reports, phone messages, interviews—and multiple character viewpoints to create a sexy, edgy, and compulsively readable tale of murder, mystery, and unsettling suspense.

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My Review:

This was my first book by Elizabeth Haynes but it definitely won't be my last.  From the first page I was pulled in and the pacing didn't let up.  I loved DCI Louisa "Lou" Smith.  She was tough but compassionate and capable but also very human.  Plus, anyone who exists primarily on KitKat bars and coffee is pretty great!  The mystery itself is intriguing and it was very easy to keep the large cast and all the different threads straight.  Haynes mixes in transcripts of reports and witness statements in the story itself which I hadn't come across before.  It took me a chapter or two to get used to it but once I did I really enjoyed it.  It was a quick way to get the information to the reader without having to have characters discuss it.  I also enjoyed that the chapters were divided by day and that the breaks within the chapter were headed with a time code.  It gave a sense of urgency to the reading and I really felt caught up within the investigation.  I didn't care for Andy Hamilton but I don't think I really was supposed too.  I didn't love the sex or romantic relationships between some of the characters where it wasn't related to the murder but that's purely personal.  This is the first in a new series and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of Lou.

About Elizabeth Haynes

Elizabeth Haynes is a police intelligence analyst, a civilian role that involves determining patterns in offending and criminal behavior. Dark Tide is her second novel; rights to her first, Into the Darkest Corner, have been sold in twenty-five territories. Haynes lives in England in a village near Maidstone, Kent, with her husband and son. Visit her at elizabeth-haynes.com, connect with her on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter.