I don't think I've ever read d crime thriller with a deadly virus at its core before. Not a believable one anyway. My goodness Alex Caan you write some dark stuff but I couldn't stop reading. This coming from me who finds an episode of 999What's your emergency a bit too much at times. There's some very graphic descriptions of faces not looking as they should, flesh eating bugs and what they can do...what happens at an autopsy and inside a hospital that looks to treat such diseases.

Kate and Zain are good characters with backgrounds not just based around errant partners and drinking problems which is always refreshing in crime novels. If there's a niggle I had about this novel is that sometimes the science confused me slightly although I was fascinated by it. However a minor niggle as it has nothing to do with the plot was the use of PCC, DCI etc when writing about the police. With the story using GCHQ, Mi6 and science shorthand, I thought this was overdone and kept jolting me out of the story .

I'm coming back for more though!

The day after a wild Bonfire Night, Kate Riley and Zain Harris are called to investigate the suspicious death of a man dressed as Guy Fawkes. The man hasn’t been strangled, stabbed, shot or pummeled; he’s been attacked by a flesh eating bacteria. A bacteria so dangerous, anyone who came into contact with him must be quarantined. The dead man, a public servant, has plenty of enemies. Could one of them be responsible? As medical professionals work feverishly to find a cure, they begin to vanish, one by one. Riley and Harris have their work cut out for them during their second outing, where they are fighting for the health and safety of the entire public

This is the second book by Alex Caan. I loved Cut to the Bone featuring DCI Kate Riley and DS Zain Harris. First to Die does not disappoint. If anything, I think it's better. The pace is fast right from the beginning and the tension never drops. As well as the main storyline about a civil servant found dead in a London park, we have the back stories of Zain and Kate. It's a rollercoaster of a read!

Having read the first book with Kate and Zain, I was excited to be approved for an ARC of First to Die. Well this book was even better than the first, it was fast paced with a great story line and lots of twists and turns. I love the two main characters of Kate Riley and Zain Harris, both and really felt protective towards them, wanting them to overcome their issues and hoping for a bit of romance!. This is one of those books that keeps you up reading it into the small hours.