‘Stone Cold Killing’ by D. E. White.

Published by Joffe Books,
9 November 2022.
ISBN:  978-1-80405576-2 (PB)

It’s pouring with rain and D C Dove Milson is driving with her partner DS Steve Parker when Dove sees a baby in the middle of the road.  She swerves to avoid it, braking hard.  As they get out of the car they see, beyond the baby, a car in a ditch.  Dove goes to the baby to discover that it is, in fact, an extremely lifelike doll.  Steve rushes to the car, to find no sign of a driver, just a trail of blood leading into the woods.  While they are searching the scene, they hear gunfire.  Dove sees a figure running away and then discovers that Steve has been shot.

When support arrives, the subsequent search reveals the body of a woman with a carved stone heart in her mouth.  Investigations suggest that she is not the murderer’s first victim and that she won’t be the last.  Dove plays a key role in uncovering the links between current events and evidence of historic child abuse. In so doing she becomes the focus of attention and suffers the consequences – as she later acknowledges “our jobs are always going to be on that knife-edge of danger”.

The opening pages provide a dramatic start to the book, drawing the reader in.  The interplay between the characters, and the twists and turns of the plot sustain the tension and the pace.  Dove’s character is well-drawn (both professionally and privately).  Though it is the fourth in the Dove Milson series, this novel does work as a stand-alone.  It will please existing readers as well as attracting new readers to the series.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author: in the Detective Dove Milson Mysteries:  Glass Dolls, The Ice Daughters, The Abberley Beach Murders

D.E. White is a pseudonym used by Daisy White who writes psychological thrillers for HQ Digital (HarperCollins). She lives near the Sussex coast, and has two children, both of whom are bookworms, so it must run in the family!

https://daisywhiteauthor.co.uk/

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.