‘The Killing Files’ by Nikki Owen

Published by Harlequin,
23 June 2016.
ISBN: 978-1-848-45441-5

Doctor Maria Martinez has Asperger’s and at a very young age was recruited and experimented on by the Project, a covet programme formed to offset cyber crime and connected to MI5. We meet her when she is just coming to in what seems like a cell or dungeon. She is tied up and attached to a machine delivering drugs into her arm on a timer.

The story then goes back in time and we slowly learn by alternate chapters how she came to be imprisoned in what turns out to be a basement.

Because of the drugs she is given she cannot recall the past clearly, but gradually remembers that an important file exists that will expose the cruel and corrupt business of the Project for what it is. It also contains details of all the people recruited in the same way as Maria. The more she remembers the more desperate she gets to free herself and tell the truth about the Project and in particular about a Doctor Carr who she nicknames “Black Eyes”.

Her spirits rise when her brother, Ramon, comes into the basement and she is sure he is going to release her but it seems he has other ideas. Surely he cannot be connected to the Project can he?

There follows one revelation after another, making for very gripping and exciting reading until all is made clear, although Maria suffers much heartache on the way.

Well, the action certainly never lets up in this book. Nikki Owen uses a way of writing a story in that just about every chapter alternates from the present day to back in time to how Maria comes to be confined in the basement. It cleverly builds the tension up in such a way that it made me turn the pages faster and faster.

Apparently the Killing Files is the second book in a trilogy, it will be interesting to see what happens next. I look forward to the third one with anticipation.

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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Nikki Owen is an award-winning freelance writer and columnist currently based in Gloucestershire.  Previously, Nikki was a marketing consultant and University teaching fellow before turning to writing full time. As part of her degree, she studied at the acclaimed University of Salamanca – the same city where her protagonist of The Spider in the Corner of the Room, Dr Maria Martinez, hails from. The Spider in the Corner of the Room is Nikki's debut international novel – the first in a trilogy – and will be published in several languages. In 2014, the trilogy was optioned by NBC Universal Television for a one-hour returnable TV series.

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf  (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.