The special Girls by Isabelle Grey.
This is book 3 of the Di Grace Fisher series.
A very good read. Great story good characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author. 4*.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I really enjoyed the book, it has everything I love in a novel from start to finish. I can’t wait to read what the author has planned next!

After reading Special Girls it learnt it was the third book in the series. This was the first book I read and it and I believe it can be read a a stand alone book. I could not put this book down, it was emotive and at times hard to read. I found the Police investigation factual and mirrored a real life investigation. I went on the roller coaster with the families and developed a real dislike for Helen and Ned. A gripping read, loved every minute.

Very topical and dealt with exceedingly well, especially form the male policeman's point of view. It brings emotions to forefront and how different generations and people deal and dealt with this kind of abuse. Despite the harrowing subject it is really good read.

great read and easy to follow story line. look forward to reading more from this author.

Hi Karen,
My next review is:-

"The Special Girls:DI Grace Fisher 3", written by Isabelle Grey and published in hardcover by Quercus on 6 April 2017. 384 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1786480958

A doctor is found beaten to death in woods close to a summer camp for young women with eating disorders. The camp is run by the charismatic Professor Chesham. DI Grace Fisher is called in, but is quickly pulled from the investigation - to head up a cold case inquiry involving Chesham himself.

Some years earlier, one of Chesham's patients made allegations that he sexually assaulted her.

As Grace uncovers the lies that led to the doctor's murder, she discovers the full extent of the damage done to the special girls - and the danger they are still in.

This was an incredibly well researched and thoughtfully written story which had me gripped throughout it's 384 page length. I don't remember reading any other mystery books in the past that have dealt with enquiries into historical sexual abuse similar to the one relating to Jimmy Saville, in such a perceptive and thought provoking manner. This was a very difficult subject to write about but this author accepted the challenge with relish and wove a very gripping thriller around it. The writer is very accomplished, altering the pace of the story where necessary and describing the many characters very skilfully.

Without a doubt it is ultimately an excellent police procedural but the subject matter takes into a completely different realm and I was swept away by this absolutely enthralling plot-line. This is only the third novel in this series and if they all are of such a high standard what can we expect of the story lines of her future books?

The standard of writing of this superb and gripping story, I hope will be repeated in all her future books and I consider this one of the best police procedurals that I have read this year and I very strongly recommend it.

Best wishes,


Terry
(To be published on eurocrime.co.uk in due course)

brilliant from start to finish would highly recommend.

Fabulous read by a great author. It kept me gripped throughout. 10/10 !

4.5 ☆  Review

Special Girls is the third book within the series. However this is my first book. I don't feel this hindered my reading in any way as this can be read as a stand alone book.

Special Girls is a detective, crime book and tackles some very sensitive issues. Murder, child abuse, cover ups and politics.
It is a powerful story and I found this made it a little tough to read at times. Although I fully understand the reader has to endure those moments in order to find out more.

Detective books are not my usual reads but the blurb enticed me in.

Things start to go horribly wrong when a group of teenagers attend a camp for eating disorders, however one member of staff is brutally murdered.

Detective Grace Fisher is the leading detective and it's her job to uncover the truth about the murder.
 
The further Grace delves into the case the more she uncovers links to historical abuse cases that was ignored and more to the point covered up.
Could this be bigger than her is she stepping into murky waters of cover ups and corruption.
At what cost.

Special Girls is highly addictive and a real page turner. It's gripping and has you hooked in, it's cleverly written and a great strong female lead detective.
My heart was breaking when you learn of the abuse, then you feel anger. A mixed bag of emotions throughout the story!

It does delve into such subjects that are sensitive like the child abuse and the history behind the cover ups.
However the subjects are well researched and although painful to read it does draw you in.

I will definitely be reading more in the series.

Welcome to the first stop on the blog tour for The Special Girls! This is book three in the DI Grace Fisher series, set between Essex and London. This story is dark, grisly and a really exciting crime thriller.

I don’t want to tell much of the story – it’s a wild ride and one you’re absolutely going to be absolutely hooked on from the get go – but the main focus of the investigation is child abuse. I found this a really thought-provoking read, especially given that such stories are now often in the daily media. This book is a really realistic book, and one that explores a really important issue.

I personally haven’t read the previous books in this series, but that absolutely didn’t lessen my enjoyment of the book. It can definitely be read as a stand alone, and I for one am now desperate to read the previous two books in the series. Grey writes in a well written and very character driven plot. The book is very realistic, with the characters seeming very human and lifelike. The police proceedings too seem very believable, and that helps to continually suck you back into the story.

Grey is really fantastic at keeping the tension going. As the story continues on and you begin to have lots of questions about the investigation (because trust me you will) and Grey manages to keep the tension going, whilst giving you a few surprises along the way. If you’re looking for a well written police procedural book, with plenty of twists and turns, The Special Girls is exactly what you’re looking for.

Isabelle has been brave in taking the contemporary issue of child abuse and grooming by those in power in The Special Girls. Not an easy topic by any standards and yet this only too believable tale doesn’t avoid the other side of this crime, those men that have been falsely accused in the full glare of the public eye.
Dr Tim Merrick, a young psychiatric registrar is found brutally murdered while supervising a camping trip of eight girls suffering with eating disorders, the main question being asked was why he wasn’t, as he was supposed to be, supervising the girls at the camp in Essex. The girls were chosen from Professor Edward "Ned" Chesham’s clinic at St Botolph’s hospital in London as those who had made good progress as a reward and a way of learning how to enjoy life with tree climbing, swimming in the lake and other healthy pursuits.
With the adults at the camp with a firm alibi Grace Fisher has no option to take a look at the young charges but with such fragile girls, they simply can’t be investigated in the normal manner which presents something of an issue for the capable Detective Inspector. With the motive unclear Grace does what she can to get the investigation off the ground, however she has barely started when she is asked to head up a Metropolitan Police review into a cold case involving Chesham himself called Operation Mayfly. Soon she is interviewing her old boss who ran the investigation into an sexual assault involving Chesham some twenty years ago.
I was delighted to see the unusual friendship witnessed in the previous two books in this series between Ivo the crime reporter on the Courier and Grace Fisher is still going strong even while questioning the wisdom of this pairing. It isn’t as though Grace isn’t aware of the recent phone hacking scandal and the resultant need to keep any contact between the Police and the press strictly above board.
The Special Girls, while focussed on an uncomfortable subject has its attention on the effects of the crime rather than the details of the crime itself, except where absolutely necessary. The power games within the police are exposed because of the political hot potato that this particular crime has become which goes against Grace’s belief that the police are there to protect the public, not themselves. We also here from the father of one of the girls under Ned Chesham’s care, in what feels like an authentic look at life with a daughter with an eating disorder. None of the elements are overly laboured but together the political and the personal are built into a crime that is not only a whodunit but reflects contemporary views and issues in an incredibly effective manner.
There is of course a fair bit of Grace’s personal life which feeds back to the main story arc that began with her being ostracised by her old force when she made a complaint about another officer, one who happened to be her husband. This time around it seems as though Grace has finally found her feet but how far can she do to appease her superiors and protect those who she feels require it.
This series is definitely worth following and The Special Girls has ensured that it stays on my ‘must-read’ list with an interesting read, pitch-perfect plotting and realistic characters.
The Special Girls will be published today 6 April 2017 by Quercus who allowed me to read an advance review copy of this book. This unbiased review is my thanks to them.

I love reading this. Couldn't put it down . Finished it in one night.

Thanks for letting me read this.

This a police procedural featuring DI Grace Fisher set in Essex and London. It is the third in the series and I found it a reasonable standalone. It refers to the traumatic backstory of Grace which features an abusive ex-husband, the fallout from being a whistleblower and her uncomfortable history with her ambitious boss, Detective Superintendent Colin Pitman. This a story thaf feeds into our comtemporary issues of historical child abuse, perpetrated by those in power, charismatic, twisted, public figures at the heart of the establishment and the repercussions of their actions down the years on their victims, their families, their colleagues, and friends. At a summer camp run by Professor Ned Chesham for young girls with severe eating disorders, a junior doctor, Dr Tim Merrick is discovered murdered.

This is a politically charged investigation as Grace and her team delve into the lives of the medical personnel and begin to uncover evidence of abuse allegations that were ignored and covered up. This goes back to the days when the medical profession were treated as gods who wielded enormous power and young traumatised girls were disbelieved and powerless to do anything about it. To complicate matters, Grace is asked to head a police investigation of a complaint headed by her old boss. This inquiry 'Operation Firefly' is a poisoned chalice that is looking to exonerate the police from all blame. However, it indicates to Grace that there were political figures that ensured the case was buried. Grace finds herself with no choice but to deploy unorthodox means to ensure that justice is served, as influential opposition looks set to bury the case. The story of Clive and Gillian gives us an insight into the effect the sexual abuse has on families and their devastating consequences. In the midst of all this, Grace gets romantically involved with her DS, Blake Langley and becomes personally acquainted with the effects of abuse through a close colleague.

This is a well written and compelling story of the grisly nature of child abuse and the repercussions it has and the society that turned a blind eye. The novel draws you in and never lets you go with its high levels of suspense and tension. What particularly drew my interest was the character of the nurse, Helen, her actions and behaviour, giving the reader an intensely thought provoking controversial figure. An excellent read of an important issue with its roots in the reality of our society. Highly recommended. Thanks to Quercus for an ARC.

f you like your thrillers dark and creepy, with a psychological twist, you should enjoy this topical and rather controversial tale. It involves the murder of a young psychiatrist, close to the treatment centre for vulnerable young women, which is subsequently linked with cases of historical sexual abuse, and it will hold your attention to the riveting conclusion. Grey's characters are quite believable and the locations chosen throughout enhance the tale. Having enjoyed this introduction to her work, it will certainly encourage me to read more of it.

I enjoyed this book, having a special interest in eating disorders from my job as a psychologist. I also thought it was pretty accurate depiction, which is always a bonus when reading something. I enjoyed the storyline - apart from the link to government corruption - but that is a personal preference rather than because it did not work. i also like the main character Grace and find her believable and someone I want to know more about.

I have not read any books by this author before and normally really enjoy police procedural books but struggled a bit with this one.

This is a solid police procedural that explores timely issues of abuse and cover-ups, and which has things to say about the media, police and politics more generally. Grey has done her research and keeps everything moving along from the start when a promising paediatrician is found murdered at a summer camp for young female anorexia sufferers.

I've read an earlier book in this DI Grace Fisher series and have found them both very competent in terms of writing, characterisation, plot but there's something just a bit so-so about them: it's not that Grey does anything wrong, just that there's no pizzazz, no personality or humour or anything to make them stand out from the thousands of other police procedurals out there. Grace herself has a few hang-ups from the past, a mild aversion to her boss and there are some 'Line of Duty' moments in this book. Some of the 'big' moments happen off-stage, as it were, which contributes to the slightly grey feel of the book overall.

Those readers who prefer their crime without undue violence or swearing may like this though there are some mild issues of sex given the subject matter - If you enjoy straightforward procedurals that get to the point without extravagance then this is definitely worth a try. 3.5 stars.

This book features DI Grace Fisher and is the third in the series. I'd not read anything from this author previously however the immediate feel is of a fairly traditional police story well written. The setting is a summer camp for patients with eating disorders in the grounds of an old stately home type place. There are three staff who are accompanying the girls and one of those, a young doctor, is murdered. Before Grace can get fully involved in this investigation she is asked to head up a review of an old case handled by the Met. It concerns someone who was at the scene of the murder investigation - is there a connection?

As the book goes on it is clear that things are not actually that clear! Did the previous investigation miss something of any importance? Who is really interested in these cases and why? What might be the role of the press in this? In a sense this is a simple crime novel. However that really would be to sell this short. I've read some remarkably ordinary crime stories and this is not one of them. The writing is very good indeed and this is a book which it is very easy to simply continue reading.

As the investigations progress there is good sustained pace and tension that kept me reading solidly. Refreshingly it doesn't cast the police, in the main, or anyone else as incompetent or making blunders. I found myself liking Grace and a number of the other characters too. Indeed, good or bad, I don't recall a character who didn't work for me. Some of the more minor characters seemed particularly well drawn too. On that subject this is a book that is about historical sexual abuse. For me the issues are handled well however it may affect some people - worth bearing in mind maybe.

My only reservation about this story - and it is minor - is the introduction of "love interest". This is a very well written crime drama for me. It did not need that dimension nor did that have any real bearing on the story. I for one will be reading more of Grey's work now I've found it and would happily recommend it to anyone who enjoys good crime fiction.

Brilliant book. Excellent main characters and plot. I would recommend this book.