Deathly Affair by Leigh Russell (Geraldine Steel 13)

Publication Date - 1st May 2020

Publishers - Oldcastle Books & No Exit.

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Four Dead Bodies. But who is guilty in this deadly web of secrecy and lies?

When a homeless man is found strangled to death, Detective Sergeant Geraldine Steel is caught off guard by the cold-bloodied nature of the crime. A second murder suggests that the existence of a killer whose motive is as elusive as he is dangerous.

In an investigation plagued by police scepticism, only Geraldine is relentless in her pursuit of the truth. As she is forced down unexpected avenues into the lives of three people caught in a toxic triangle of love and deceit, she discovers there is more to this case than any of them could have imagined.

I received an advance copy of this book via Netgalley.

The novel begins when a homeless man is found one morning strangled in York city centre and I enjoyed the opening couple of chapters where Geraldine was annoyed that people weren’t taking the case seriously since the victim was homeless. It was a good social commentary on how society in general views the homeless and that Geraldine was determined that there was going to be justice for this victim despite his unfortunate circumstances.

You are also introduced to her colleagues DI Ian Peterson, who she used to work with before, her boss Eileen and teammate and friend Ariadne. Maybe it is because Geraldine has recently just moved to York after being demoted that the team doesn’t feel connected. They just don’t seem to work as a plot tool. Yes, Russell has tried to portray Geraldine as being the lone voice of the team, the only one that is seeing things from a rational point, but it is more than that. I think these sections of the novel need work. Its a police procedural and there should be more from that aspect. Also, there were glaring plot holes that could have been addressed. One of the victims had been restrained for over a week and somehow the on the ball pathologist missed this. Also, it is clear from the circumstantial evidence used that the various suspects that were arrested to begin with would never have passed the evidential threshold that the CPS would have used to allow someone to be charged. But yet each time the ‘team', minus Geraldine I must say, thought the case was closed.

Throughout the book, you learn about a character called Molly and her home situation, which is the reason she ends up on the streets. Molly is an important witness in the case as she sees one of the murders taking place. However, that is all she is. There isn’t really a reason for all her background and once she has fulfilled her purpose of being a witness you don’t really get an ending for her character as it's felt very rushed. To me, it feels like padding in the book, something that didn’t really add to the narrative and was totally superfluous. It would have made more sense to develop the character of Aimee instead as that would have been a good hook to see the thought processes of Ann and David.

This is the thirteenth book in the Geraldine Steel series and I have read a couple of these over the years and enjoyed them. However, in this case, I found this book very unstructured and for a police procedural over half the book was not related to the ‘police’ points of view. The book for me was full of cliches and the plot was not complicated at all. All through the book, you knew what the next stage in the case would be, that the red herrings were indeed that. The main bugbear for me was that the killer had not been introduced as a character until Geraldine meets them for the first time and realises straight away it is them. It doesn’t allow a reader the main joy of reading a crime book - guessing the killer before it's revealed. Maybe I am just becoming a very picky reader!