Title: Risk of Harm

Author: Lucie Whitehouse

Genre: Thriller/Crime

Publisher: 4th Estate

Rating: 4.5/5

Cover:

Summary:

Robin Lyons is back in her hometown of Birmingham and now a DCI with Force Homicide, working directly under Samir, the man who broke her heart almost twenty years ago.

When a woman is found stabbed to death in a derelict factory and no one comes forward to identify the body, Robin and her team must not only hunt for the murderer, but also solve the mystery of who their victim might be.

As Robin and Samir come under pressure from their superiors, from the media and from far-right nationalists with a dangerous agenda, tensions in Robin’s own family threaten to reach breaking point. And when a cold case from decades ago begins to smoulder and another woman is found dead in similar circumstances, rumours of a serial killer begin to spread.

In order to get to the truth Robin will need to discover where loyalty ends and duty begins. But before she can trust, she is going to have to forgive – and that means grappling with some painful home truths.

Review:

I really enjoyed being introduced to Robin and her life in Critical Incidents so I was eager to catch up with her next move in Risk of Harm. She has decided to stay in her hometown of Birmingham and join the homicide team there as a DCI. I found Risk of Harm just as engaging as the first instalment, if not more so, since I am now familiar with Robin and her family, colleagues and her circumstances. The case, or rather, cases, that she and her team have to solve are complicated, gripping and intriguing, starting with a victim seemingly impossible to identify and unraveling from there.

Risk of Harm is a compelling police procedural, but it is also a family drama of sorts. Robin’s relationships are a constant source of tension, whether it be with her parents, her antagonistic brother, her former boyfriend/current boss and of course her teenage daughter. I found all of these issues and complications at play as equally interesting as the crimes at the heart of the book. Robin is not always completely likeable but that is what makes her feel like a real human being with flaws and nuance to her character. Overall – Risk of Harm is a fantastic second instalment of a crime series that I am very much enjoying and I can’t wait to read more of.

★★★★.5

Huge thanks to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for my place on Team Lyons and for the copy of the book. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon