Killing for Keeps Kate Daniels #5

Author/Guide: Mari Hannah

Why a Booktrail?

2000s: The fifth installment in the Kate Daniels series and she’s really got her work cut on this time – with the worst torture case that Northumbria police has ever seen.

ISBN: 978-1447246114
Genre: Crime, Thriller

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What you need to know before your trail

The story opens with a scene of torture – a beating in a Newcastle night club and ends with one of the most chilling lines ever in a Kate Daniels novel.

Six months later and the whole sordid affair of that night comes out and starts to haunt Kate Daniels. Two brothers from a well known criminal family are found dead within a few miles of each other – tortured to death. As Kate digs deeper, she tries to hide her revulsion of what she has seen but also what she fears she will see if she doesn’t find those responsible.

The ripples start to spread across the city – associates of the men are uneasy and witnesses scared. Kate has to break some rules, putting herself and her career in danger. But there is someone out there who doesn’t even respect any kind of rule and will put anything or anyone in danger who crosses their path.

Locations

Reset

Spain
F: Rojales

Travel Guide

Kate Daniels stomping ground may be the North East and Northumberland but this investigation is going to take her outside of that area and into a whole other ball game. Opening scenes are a busy waiting room in a hospital or a white van parked on the roadside – pretty unassuming places right? Now when you’re Mari Hannah they’re not.

North East England

We’re back in Jesmond, the neighborhood of both Kate and Jo Soulsby – (will these two ever get back together? We were championing them throughout this novel).
Familiar haunts in Newcastle city centre along with new ones – Clubland – increase Kate’s stomping ground and gives the city and Kate’s landscape a new and grittier feel. The nearby Paddy Freeman park and Jesmond Dene offer a little respite being the places Kate loves to relax but then it becomes a place for meeting a witness. As for the Silverlink trading estate, Byker and Walker – well the industrial side of the city gets a gritty part to play here too.

Blanchland – “the exquisitely tranquil village” at the heart of Catherine Cookson country was a nice addition and unexpected new direction for Kate. Visiting such a local beauty spot, as part of such a brutal investigation as was the case when Whitby flagged up as a place of interest. Remote, rural and for Kate, dangerous as to what she might find there.

Visiting a local beauty spot as part of such a brutal investigation – as was the case when Whitby flagged up as a place of interest – is in direct contrast to the reasons why she is there. Remote, rural and for Kate, dangerous too.

Scotland

As the case progresses, the investigation takes her and DS Hank Gormley north of the border to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Links with one criminal family have a bearing on the entire Newcastle case. Yet the ‘fish out of water’ works well for Hank’s wit to shine through here – regarding the ‘funny money’ that the Scots use and the notion of ‘Geordistan’. And the lesser-known and rather less fashionable meaning behind D & G.

“Edinburgh was as grey as Glasgow had been – only prettier. If she hadn’t been such a fan of her home city, this was the one place Kate would choose to live.”

Spain

When the net widens and the investigation takes Kate across to the Continent, to the Rojales region of mainland Spain, near Alicante, the book races to a thrilling finale. But we’ll stop there since to say anymore would be to spoil the surprises shocks in store. And there are plenty. Believe us.

Streetview Maps

Newcastle: Silverlink Park
Where the novel opens

Newcastle: RVI
Someone is taken here important to the investigation

Blanchland
Kate's investigation takes her here

SPAIN - Rojales (near the river)
The investigation takes Kate here

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer:

You might want to take a breath and pause after reading the prologue as things just get more heated from here and like Kate, you’ll be wanting a bit of respite as your head swims and you try to work out just what on earth is going on in newcastle and how Kate and her team are ever going to work this out with so many obstacles in their way. And they’re just the ones they can see.

Kate is back on her patch and she’s stronger and bolshier than usual but she also is reeling from past cases and relationships and this adds to her determination and sheer hard headedness to solve the case. She is also feeling guilt over making a mistake and all of this adds to a new vulnerability that gave us a new understanding of Kate and her drive but also of her as a person. Her relationship with Jo still lingers in the background and will evidently bring more issues with it in future novels as it does in this one but no spoilers here.

The setting and location of the crimes and where the investigation led to really capture our imagination as they were both a surprise and a revelation leading us to consider links in the story we hadn’t considered before and taking both us and the investigation in a new direction.

This was a brutal crime and a chilling case to follow but Mari’s skill hides the worst of it so that its not explicitly mentioned but revealed by the reactions of the police and what happens afterwards. Her relationship with Hank is influenced by pressures and unwelcome shocks and the thrills just keep on coming. Locations are used to very good effect whether you are familiar with the North East or not. If not a visit to Blanchland should be on your radar.

Takes you right to the heart of a chilling investigation and examines the trauma and challenge of the police to chase, protect and investigate all at once.