- ASIN: B09LMLVF33
- Publisher: Independent (10 Nov. 2021)
- Language: English
- Print length: 289 pages
- Genre: Urban Crime and Mystery
The BookViral Review:
With a flawless understanding of the detective genre, Eva Carmichael spins a sordid and suspenseful tale in ‘A Twisted Mind’.
Two cases 16 years apart combine in Redcar police station in this gripping mystery. The first is two-year-old Poppy, who suddenly disappears without a trace from a blanket on the beach. The second, a series of missing girls, all mysteriously connected by a designer dress label.
Each story carries its own trajectory as Detective Chief Inspector Bainbridge and Detective Inspector Cooper come together after years apart to work together on both cases. Carmichael expertly negotiates the obligatory undercurrents of cop-on-cop relationships as the pair meet and sidestep in a dance between their professional and personal lives.
Carmichael builds her characters effectively, with her portrayal of Rosie as a harassed but loving Mother particularly strong. Nevertheless, she leaves space in her narrative for the reader’s imagination rather than prescriptively supplying every physical and emotional detail.
Just when the resolution seems inevitable, Carmichael satisfies her readers with a startling and unexpected denouement as all roads of enquiry converge into a dramatic climactic conclusion, topped off by a shocking twist which leaves readers reeling. Totally sucked in by her unlikely antagonist, you are drawn back into the story to reimagine the vulnerability of characters who have existed in his orbit.
Complete with red herrings and some very shady characters, Carmichael keeps you guessing right up to the penultimate moment but does not shy away from tough storylines, instead replacing the saccharine success of cracking the case with a new, spine-tingling tragedy.
Impeccably researched, ‘A Twisted Mind’ stays true to its recognisable setting, lending an extra layer of believability to her story. This, with the raw and gritty portrayal of detective work, makes for an absorbing read.
Leaving a great set-up for further books, Eva Carmichaels ‘A Twisted Mind, is firmly recommended.
