‘Tick Tock’ by Mel Sherratt.

Published by Avon,
2 May 2019.
ISBN: 978-0-00-827107-7 (PB)

This is the second book in the DS Grace Allendale, police procedural series set in Stoke.

A sixteen -year -old schoolgirl is found murdered on a school field outing. The killer did the deed in a matter of minutes.

As the whole school goes into mourning DS Grace Allendale arrives to try to find the murderer. Emotions are high, parents are angry, and pupils are in shock, as the killing of this teenager was in her own school grounds. Many questions need answers.

Within days another woman, with no connection to the schoolgirl or the school, is found murdered. The signs are the same with both victims. Now the town around Stoke goes into terror, as they fear a serial killer is on the loose. Grace Allendale must work swiftly to find this killer. Trying to keep details from the press is proving difficult as Allendale’s lover is the crime journalist on the local paper. Personal problems now add to her already somersaulting emotions.

As facts and clues turn up, Grace realises there is a real race against time to avoid more killings. But this killer is clever and uses their knowledge to strike out at the most vulnerable, aiming and succeeding at throwing the murder team off their trail.

With a nail-biting finish, this book is unputdownable. Not every story ends happily. So, will this be any different?

Allendale is strong plotter, a good writer, and brilliant at bringing characters off the page.  Although this isn’t her first Allendale police procedural, you don’t have to read the first one to know the back story. She slips in enough history of why Allendale is back in Stoke and her family ties, and personal life as the reader needs to follow this journey.

Personally, I would recommend you read any books by Sherratt, I have, and have found them all page-turning. No doubting this author writes strong, powerful and gritty crime, and knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat as you keep turning those pages. Be prepared to stay up all night if that is the time you read.

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Reviewer: Linda Regan

www.lindareganonline.co.uk

Mel Sherratt has been a self-described "meddler of words" ever since she can remember. After winning her first writing competition at the age of 11, she has rarely been without a pen in her hand or her nose in a book. Since successfully self-publishing Taunting the Dead and seeing it soar to the rank of number one best-selling police procedural in the Amazon Kindle store in 2012, Mel has gone on to publish three more books in the critically acclaimed The Estate Series. Mel has written feature articles for The Guardian, the Writers and Artists website, and Writers Forum Magazine, to name just a few, and regularly speaks at conferences, event and talks. She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and her terrier, Dexter, and makes liberal use of her hometown as a backdrop for her writing.

https://melsherratt.co.uk/

  

Linda Regan is the author of six police procedural crime novels. She is also an actress. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader, and welcomes the chance to read new writers. 

  To read a review of Linda's most recent book
The Terror Within
 click on the title. 
www.lindareganonline.co.uk