I recently read Without Trace so I was interested to see where Booker would go with Morgan Vine. Kill Me Twice is another decent instalment. While it didn't blow me away, the story kept my interest and kept me turning the pages.

It took a while to get into this book -- but I'm so glad I did it. A wonderful mystery - great mother/daughter relationship... keep me so intrigued until the very satisfying conclusion... Superb!

Morgan Vine is an investigative journalist, specialising in miscarriage of justice. Drawn into the case of a woman convicted of arson and killing her abusive boyfriend, she struggles to find the evidence, that the said boyfriend, is still very much alive!! This is a nice book that has an interesting twist at the end.

Kill Me Twice Simon Booker

When this book popped up for review there was two things that immediately attracted me, the synopsis, and the authors biography.

The book did not disappoint.

I like books where the crimes and happenings are not seen from the Police point of view. The person outside the investigation, the witness, the victim, the person who discovers a crime and is affected by it, or is not believed, the wrongfully accused trying to clear their name. Some of the best books I have ever read have been narrated by, or had the main protagonist, that have come from one of those groups.

This book involves a few of those in its list of characters.

Morgan Vine is an investigative journalist who has succeeded in annoying most of the legal profession, including the police, by publishing a book about miscarriages of justice. So when she, and her 20 year old daughter, Lissa, are attacked whilst walk some cliffs it is safe to say she is not the Polices favourite victim. Strangely during the attack Lissa has her hair set alight with the attacker using a zippo lighter, so distinctive in sound, but so common in use.

A few days later Morgan visits a 27 year old single mother in the Mother and Baby Unit of the local prison. The woman, Anjelica Fry, is incarcerated for murdering her baby’s father and setting his flat on fire with the body in it; but she is adamant she is innocent and believes that Morgan can prove it.

As Morgan begins to consider the case her daughter becomes more and more withdrawn, and emotional. Dealing with the case and her daughter is stressing Morgan out.

When an incident occurs that makes Morgan and Lissa move out of their home on the beach, and into a local hotel, Morgan begins to believe Anjelica’s story.

As the investigation continues Morgan meets some fascinating characters.

Woman released from the prison who have secrets to keep, and babies to feed.

Prison Officers with secrets in their past

A Prison Governor purportedly running a clean and successful institute

A forensic Dental Odonatologist with a reputation second to none

A flirting Police Inspector

And a very handsome temptation in the way of Ben Garmiara a Fire Scene Investigator.

Without giving away too much of the plot Morgan begins to think that the body found in the fire is not Karl, Anjelica’s baby-father. How will she prove it when the top Odonatologist has given evidence in court identifying the body by his teeth.

Trying to convince the original investigating team is impossible. Morgan turns to the flirtatious DI Neville Rook, who has taken a shine to her since investigating the attack on her and Lissa on the cliff, though even he is underwhelmed by her thoughts

Lissa still becomes more withdrawn as Morgan’s investigations continue. Could she be involved in some way and is her mother’s blindness to this putting her in danger.

When a recently released prisoner and her child turn up at the same hotel as Morgan and Lissa are staying in things take a twist for the worse.

With seemingly nobody believing her Morgan carries on until she finds one ray of light. Ben the Fire Investigator, but is he too good to be true.

The end of this book is every bit as enthralling as the beginning, and there is not let up in pace and enjoyment through the middle either.

Simon Booker has written a great story that interweaves several strands all of which you know will come together, and they do.

As a Fire Investigator myself I was ready to suspend my own knowledge to read this book, but I didn’t have to. There are some points in this book which most people will take for granted, but there are a couple of little things in here that made me sit back and go, “WOW, he really does know what he’s on about”

It’s the attention to detail that makes a good story.

Simon Booker has more than created a good story, he’s created a credible story.

For me they are the best ones.

Pages: 448
Published by: Zaffre
Available on Amazon for pre order
Publish Date: 24th August 2017

I liked this book. It was definitely intriguing. It grabs you from the very first page. The plot was well thought out and surprising. I had trouble with the writing style though. While the stilted, sparse, third person narration did keep the plot ticking along quickly, and create increasing suspense throughout the book, which was good, it also made the characters seem remote and flat. I could not feel much for them or relate to them. And the spare, staccato rhythm of the writing really started to bother me the farther I read. I felt like I was reading a blurb on the back of the book, or a vague prologue, as if it was all leading up to a point where we would get serious and dive more deeply into the plot and characters, but that moment never came. I was never able to settle in and get comfortable in the story. This didn't completely ruin the story for me, and, although I didn't enjoy it much myself, I can understand why that writing style would be very appealing for this type of book, and to some other readers. I would have no reservations recommending this to fans of mysteries and thrillers.

an ok read. you will find yourself backtracking, there's a lot going on.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bonnier Zaffre for an advance copy of Kill Me Twice, the second novel to feature freelance investigative journalist Morgan Vine.

After the publication of her book on famous miscarriages of British justice Morgan receives sackfuls of letters from prisoners asking her to take up their case. It is the case of Anjelica Fry that resonates with her. Anjelica was jailed with overwhelming forensic evidence for killing her abusive ex lover and father of her child, Karl Savage, in an arson attack but Morgan finds it hard to believe that she would abandon her sick child to travel across London to get revenge on a man she had left. Her doubt is further increased when she sees the deceased Karl Savage outside her house. Struggling to be believed Morgan decides to hunt him down and exonerate Anjelica on her own.

I thoroughly enjoyed Kill Me Twice. It has a pacy style and so many twists and turns it takes stamina to keep up. It's a great read. Looking at it, however, in the cold light of day after a few hours the plot lacks a certain realism and the reader is asked to swallow a fair amount of incredulity but during the read it doesn't matter as you just get caught up in the action which is so continuous you don't have time to stop and think.

I really like Morgan in this my first encounter. She is tough, feisty and determined, relentless is the word used to describe her. A young, single mother with a moody, selfish 20 year old daughter she struggles to deal with she does her best. It is a brilliant depiction of uneasy parenthood. Through it all she continues her one woman crusade for justice. A lesser woman, like myself, would buckle under the strain but not Morgan she just girds her loins tighter and carries on.

Kill Me Twice is a great thriller which I have no hesitation in recommending.