‘The Domino Killer’ by Neil White

Published by Sphere 2015.
ISBN 978-0-7515-4951-5

                                              

This is the third book in the Parker Brothers series.  Sam Parker is a detective constable with the Greater Manchester police and his younger brother, Joe, is a criminal defence lawyer.

The book begins with a brutal, cold-blooded murder being committed by a man who didn’t know either the victim or understand why it was important that he should be killed.

Joe Parker is called to the police station and learns that the man he is being asked to represent is the man whom he believes had murdered his sister Ellie seventeen years previously.  The crime was never solved and Joe is burdened with, and driven by, the guilty knowledge that he could have saved Ellie. Indeed Joe had chosen to become a criminal lawyer only in the hope that he would come across Ellie’s murderer whom he has vowed to kill.

Whilst Joe is reeling with shock, his brother, DC Sam Parker, is trying to track the killer of the victim from Chapter One, whom it transpires has himself recently killed a schoolteacher.

The two stories gradually merge.  They take the investigators into the murky world of men seeking sex from underage girls via the Internet, and towards a warped killer who thrives on the misery his crimes generate in the families of his victims.  Gina Ross, an ex policewoman who investigated Ellie’s death, helps the brothers with their efforts to catch the killer.

                                                                                                        

This is a well-written, fast paced story in which tension builds from the first line and there is a neat twist at the end that explains the enigma raised in Chapter One.  The narrative has a great sense of place, and the personal relationships are skillfully described. Joe’s relationship with the mother of one young girl provides interest to carry that strand of the story forwards.

I hadn’t read the first two books in the series, but this was not a problem. I thoroughlyrecommend the Domino Killer to anyone who enjoys a good thriller.

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Reviewer: Angela Crowther

Neil White was born in 1965 in Mexborough, a small South Yorkshire mining town. The family moved several times. Eventually Neil studied law and gained his law degree in Preston. He is a criminal lawyer and a writer. During the day he goes to court. At night he write’s crime fiction. He says ‘It is as simple as that.’

http://neilwhite.net

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.