Death and the Good Son by B a Steadman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
4.4 star review.
Thank you to Bloodhound Books who kindly gave me an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
I am aware that one of the most difficult parts of writing a book is choosing the title and sometimes the title turns out to be the biggest spoiler.
This is the first book I have read by B A Steadman but is the 2nd in the series. Given that I would have expected it to have been proof read to a higher standard but this is an advance copy, and therefore some of the errors could have been corrected in the published version, but I found several errors for example:
“Sally Ellis stood with her hands on her hips…….finishing a cheese sandwich
and swigging from a mug of tea” (Chapter 45)
quite an achievement for 2 hands. However, I have read bigger errors in books at the high cost level and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book.
I found the story a bit slow going in places. I assume the descriptive sections were an attempt to build depth in the characters but it didn’t work very well for me.
I did grow to love Dan and Sally who are both well rounded compassionate characters and as I haven’t read book 1 I could have missed some character building.
The story is a very good one related to the myth of bodies in the bogs on Dartmoor. It sees many different areas of expertise working together to solve the mystery of the bog bodies. When a bad drugs case gets thrown into the mix the police find themselves juggling cases. There are many different threads to the story and unexpected links are discovered.
I struggled with parts of the book and found myself skim reading sections up to about 70% then it evolved from being an okay book to the gripping page turner with twists and turns that I love. Unfortunately the lack of adrenaline pumping action and too much about house decor lost it a few marks but it is still a very good read.
#bloodhound #thriller
