Today, for my stop on the #BlogTour for I WILL MAKE YOU PAY I am thrilled to share with you my review of this debut thriller by a new author to the brilliant Joffe Books: CAROLINE BALE
I WILL MAKE YOU PAY by Caroline Bale
Available from AMAZON
DISCOVER THE MOST ADDICTIVE NEW CRIME FICTION WRITER THIS YEAR
Meet Detective Ellen McClure as she takes on a vicious killer who loves playing games.
He is watching Connie Taylor in the café. He has befriended the waitress over the previous months and gained her confidence. Her coarseness disgusts him and he muses to himself about pouring acid on her face. He is going to torture Connie that evening to get the final information he needs and then he will kill her.
Connie Taylor’s head is found on the doorstep of a house in upmarket Heworth Green in York.
DI Ellen McClure finds herself embroiled in a complicated murder investigation that pits her against colleagues and family. Her boss thinks that ex-prostitute Connie was killed by one of her former clients, but Ellen thinks there is more to it.
Vicky is on the run with her five-year-old daughter, Kallie. Her life is in danger.
ELLEN MUST FIND HER BEFORE HE DOES.
Desperate to save Vicky, Ellen drags her own young daughter Zoe into the path of a deadly psychopath who will stop at nothing on his murderous rampage.
A RACE AGAINST TIME TO STOP A PSYCHOPATH ON A MISSION
An absolutely gripping mystery with a massive twist. Perfect for fans of Kimberley Chambers, Damien Boyd, Rachel Abbott, Patricia Gibney or Mark Billingham.
THE DETECTIVE
DI Ellen McClure is a 38-year-old detective with an outstanding record who will stop at nothing to protect the innocent. She has recently left her cheating husband, Anthony, and is making a new start for her and her 13 year old daughter Zoe in York, the city she grew up in. She is arriving at her new posting on the North Yorkshire Serious Crimes Team under a cloud having given evidence against a superior in her previous posting. Her tenacious approach and confrontational style often work against her, pitting her against colleagues and family. In contrast, her DC, Sarika Kaur is an empathic, thoughtful officer, who tries, often without success, to be the voice of reason.
THE SETTING
York has been occupied by everyone from the Romans to the Vikings which shows in the city’s 
cobblestone streets, half timbered houses and 18th-century flat-fronted townhouses. Diagon Alley where Harry Potter buys his wand was inspired by the Shambles, a medieval butcher’s street visited by the film’s set designers and which is now thronged with tourists. Six hundred years ago, bloody hunks of meat hung on shopfronts, dripping into the gutter that still runs along the middle of the lane. Then, of course, there is the magnificent York Minster, Europe’s largest gothic cathedral which looms over a warren of streets running down to the River Ouse with its many colourful barges and tour boats. The river cuts the city in two and flows eastwards into majestic countryside and onwards towards the North Sea.
My Review
This is a debut by a new author to me but I do love to find new authors there is always a bitter sweet moment: ‘will I like it or not?’
The book begins steadily but it is worth bearing with it as we learn the background to a very complex story.
Ellie is a feisty character willing to be outcast by her colleagues in her quest to see justice done. She has moved to York and is trying to put the pieces of her life back together after the breakdown of her marriage and the aftermath of a very difficult case. She is trying to juggle a demanding job with being a single parent when the call comes in that makes her life a whole lot worse.
Although there are several other characters it is Ellie that the story focuses on as the reader is taken on a journey through a story with corruption, abuse, psychopaths, lies, jealousy and murder that is not for the faint hearted. This is an intriguing story that builds in pace gradually all the way to an ending I certainly didn’t see coming.
The story begins way back with 2 girls who are groomed by a rich businessman. This sets in motion a string of events that sees a woman running for her life and begs the question: ‘what wouldn’t you do to save your child?’
I am looking forward to more from Caroline.
The Author
Caroline Bale is a practicing psychotherapist who draws on her work to create believable plots and complex characters. She believes the draw in books like hers is that they allow us to address our worst fears from the safety of our own bedrooms. The heart-pounding terror of walking down a deserted street alone at night or the inability to go to sleep until a beloved teenager has finally arrived home. She is interested in what motivates a person to torture or kill another human being, what psychotherapists call the shadow side of human nature. Her books are full of complex, often charming characters with personality disorders and disturbed histories. The psychopaths amongst us with the killer smiles.
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