Blog Blitz Review - The First One to Die by Victoria Jenkins

Hi everyone and thanks for popping in to check out my stop on the blog blitz for The First One to Die by Victoria Jenkins. I was lucky enough to receive a copy of this from the publisher to review for this blitz so, lets jump straight in. 

 The First One to Die by Victoria Jenkins

Published by Bookouture on 15th November 2017

Goodreads Challenge - 74/50

Star Rating - ****

I received an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis

Four friends. A house full of secrets. And a killer picking them off one by one...

'She tried to break her fall, twisting desperately, but there was nothing to catch hold of, nothing with which she could stop herself. Her single scream cut through the night air.'

One hot summer night, a young woman falls from a rooftop to her death. Detective Alex King is called to the quiet terraced street.

The victim, Keira North, was twenty, happy and carefree. It seems like an accident, but there’s broken glass on the carpet, and witnesses overheard an argument. Could someone have wanted her dead? 

Keira’s friends don’t seem as helpful as Alex would expect and the post-mortem reveals that Keira was hiding a secret: she was five months pregnant. Alex’s team soon finds that all of Keira's closest friends have secrets that someone might kill to keep.

As Alex realises Keira might be just the first victim on a list, her leads take her a bit too close to home. With her own demons to fight, can Alex catch the killer, before someone else dies?

The First One to Die is a heart-stopping and shocking detective thriller that will have you gripped until the very last page. Perfect for fans of Patricia Gibney, Angela Marsons, and Val McDermid.

My Thoughts

This was a really enjoyable detective thriller that did indeed keep me gripped until the end. We follow Detective Alex Lane and her partner Chloe as they investigate the death of Keria North. At first this seems like an accident but Alex isn't convinced and as they look closer it seems there's more too it then everyone first thought. Keria's friends seem to be hiding secrets of their own and as links begin to form between them and another victim it seems that not everyone is safe.  This was a great story and I really enjoyed reading it. It was a little slow to begin with and lots of characters were introduced all at once, some with little back story, as this is the second in a series. I managed to pick up who was who and where they came from after a couple of chapters and I was very intrigued with where the story was going to go. 

I thought the writing was really good. There was a great flow to the writing, it wasn't extremely fast paced but it wasn't too slow either. Lots of different story threads were weaved together and the pace of the story meant you were able to follow everything easily. The stories became intertwined with one another as we went along and this definitely kept you on your toes. We were given lots of questions and very few answers which kept me wanting to read. I eagerly anticipated these answers and I had to know what happened next. As one question was answered another one appeared. 

There was a very interesting cast of characters in this story. Lots of them were quite unreliable and this meant you never knew what was true and what wasn't. I love unreliable narrators in thrillers it really adds an extra unknown element to the story and these characters really kept me guessing. I had to continue reading. I also really like Alex and Chloe as characters. I particularly liked how they are both female and the lead officers on the case. It's not often you get lead female detectives without any sexist aspects in a detective novel so this was really great to read. 

Overall I really enjoyed this story and as a second in a series I will say it can be quite easily read as a standalone. It has it's own story arc which is easy to follow however, interspersed through out are mentions of some overarching plot points that I think was introduced in the first book. This overarching plot focused more on our main characters, Chloe and Alex, and, although it didn't detract from the main story line I may have enjoyed the subplots more having read the first book. That being said it was a great detective thriller that kept my guessing all the way to the end and it is one I would recommend. 

Overall Rating 

This book is available from the following links.

Amazon UK          Amazon US

Author Bio

Victoria Jenkins lives with her husband in South Wales, where she writes crime fiction and teaches English. The Girls in the Water is her debut novel, the first featuring Detective Inspector Alex King and Detective Constable Chloe Lane. The second book in the series will be published in late 2017.

Facebook: VictoriaJenkinsWriter        Twitter: Vicwritescrime

Thank you for stopping by to check out my review of The First One to Die. The blog blitz has been running since the 15th November so if your interested you can check out the other stops below.