An enjoyable thriller, second in this particular series, I love the fact that the lead detective is disabled but wish that these difficulties were expired more fully. Plot moved along at pace and reached a well thought out conclusion.


Thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for providing me with an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Based in Dublin, Alanna Mack is a detective in the Garda, and leading a particularly gruesome murder enquiry that seems to be leading nowhere. She’s a really complex character, who interacts well with her team, and her partnership with Paddy is a really good dynamic, where their individual skills bounce off each other. I liked that the officers backgrounds and home lives are a full part of the story. The effects of doing such a demanding job whilst in a wheel chair have been researched and handled really well. I love any book that keeps me guessing who the murderer is until very near to the end. Works well as a stand alone read, but I’ll be reading the first book in the series too.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I really loved the characters in this book! She was such a fun and empowering main character. I also enjoyed the writing style, which made this such a quick and engaging read. Will definitely pick up more by this author. Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

After thoroughly enjoying the first book in this series I was excited for the next instalment. I absolutely loved it! Fast paced action and great character development. The story developed really cleverly with little clues for the amateur detective audience to pick up on. I cannot wait for the next book. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for allowing me to read a copy in return for an honest review. A massive 5 stars from me.

Detective Alana Mack is back with a a bang!

A great book which i raced through I absolutely loved it and will be eagerly looking forward to subsequent books in this series.

4 stars

Thanks to netgalley for this arc

Usually when I read a series, it’s the first book I like the most. That’s not the case with this one. I actually liked the second one much more. It seemed to flow much better and the characters have really come into their own with this one. (Not that the first one wasn’t good, mind you! It was!) The story was engaging from the beginning and the killer was a surprise. For once, I just let the story take me instead of trying to figure out all the puzzles. The author did a great job of setting up all the B-stories. While I wouldn’t say I was surprised at the final reveal, I will say I liked how it was presented. Everything tied up nicely, if not very sad for the characters. I’ll be interested to see where the relationships will be going from here considering everything that happened.

Huge thanks to Storm Publishing and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

An absolutely compelling read. I was glad I started reading it over the weekend so I could indulge myself. I only stopped to sleep. The lead detective is a wheelchair user so this throws difficulties into her job meaning she has to find ways to visit the scene whilst keeping it sterile. In all it was a refreshingly different, twisty novel. Well-researched as regards medical and forensic detail.

Fantastic. Loving this series of the wheelchair bound Irish dectective Alanna Mack.
Greatly written book with brilliant twists and turns keeping you guessing to the very end. Alanna & Paddy are a great dectective duo and this case is near to home for one of them.
Looking forward to another instalment.
Highly recommended

I liked this story, I didn't love it. I struggled a bit with the Irish phrases and idiom, and had to think too much about what was being said. I'd read the previous story in the series, so I was somewhat familiar with the characters, who were presented realistically.

This wasn't a thriller or a whodunit, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being given freely.

I am loving this new series from Jenny.
It has a strong story line with many twists. I enjoy the strong female main Character Alana and how she interacts with her team.
I look forward to reading more in this series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Storm Publishing for access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a treat. This book was right up my alley. An Irish crime thriller with a strong female lead, yes please.

The characters are deep and interesting and the plot is clever and original. It's well paced and kept me guessing and intrigued right through to the end.

Jenny has done it again with another cracking read starring the very bad arse Alana Mack.

I will be impatiently waiting for book 3.

Also, I'm really hoping to see some Bilana (Billy+Alana) teamwork in the future!

In Dublin, two murdered women are left by railway tracks, while a single rose is left on their beds.

Detective Alana Mack of Dublin’s National Bureau of Criminal Investigations and her team are getting nowhere trying to find the person who has murdered two women, Nadine and Cathy, leaving their bodies near railway tracks while leaving a single red rose on the freshly made beds in their homes. The two women have no connection to one another that Alana and her crew have been able to find, and there is no forensic evidence pointing the way to a suspect. When Harvey Buckenham comes in to report that his wife Sarah has gone missing after failing to pick their daughter Belle up from school, Alana is afraid that Sarah might be more than just missing, she might be the killer’s third victim. Harvey had last heard from Sarah when she was on a train heading to collect Belle; the train was delayed, and Sarah asked Harvey to get Belle instead. When the dead body of a woman is discovered on the train tracks, hit by the very train on which Sarah had been riding, it is either a huge coincidence or Sarah’s disappearance has some connection to the case of the murdered women. This third victim, Avril Kenny, has no apparent connection to the previous two victims, but she does appear to have known Sarah. There are some anomalies between Avril’s death and those of the previous women….is the killer evolving, or is there a copycat afoot? Where is Sarah, and is there trouble in her marriage? The woman to whom Harvey points the police as Sarah’s closest friend. Maeve, actually loathes Sarah….why? As Alana tries to adjust to a new boss who strikes her as long on ambition and short on leadership, and her teammate Paddy Quigg is dealing with challenges in his new relationship, can they break the case (or cases) before another body is found?

Alana is an interesting lead character….smart, often impatient, but a solid leader to her team. That she is coming off of a divorce (with an ex who doesn’t truly believe they’re over) and is doing her best to keep at the job she loves even as she has to adjust to life in a wheelchair adds layers to her off-work persona. In this, her second outing after “The Puppet Maker”, we get to learn more about several of the team members in some depth as well. Paddy has his hands full with his girlfriend Irene's sister Annelise, to whom Irene is very close, and Annelise’s husband Eoin, who is to Paddy’s mind a bit of a prat. In short, the investigators’ personal lives are no more orderly than the crimes they are investigating, and the case or cases with unresolved deaths on their watch adds to their overall stress. With the killer narrating occasional chapters, the readers know a bit more than the investigators do, but while we learn about his troubled childhood and his first foray into murder, we don’t know who he is until the very end of the novel (though I had my suspicions a bit earlier than that). The blend of interesting characters on and outside of the investigating team, the dynamics of inter office squabbles and office politics, and the complications that relationships pose to those involved are all woven into the brisk plotting of the mystery at hand. I enjoyed reading both the first novel in this series and this follow-up, though it is not necessary to have read the first in order to fully appreciate Roses for the Dead. I was pleased to read at the end that there is a third installment on the way, which I look forward to reading. For readers of well-plotted police procedurals, including those by authors like John Connolly, Ken Bruen, Ann Cleeves and Val McDermid, I would recommend this series highly, as well as to those who like a good mystery with an Irish setting. Many thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for allowing me access to an advanced reader’s copy.

Roses for the Dead by Jenny O'Brien is the 2nd book in the Alana Mack series, and it does not disappoint. I did read the first book, and I would recommend reading it to get acquainted with the characters. However, Roses for the Dead can be read as a standalone.

I really like Detective Alana Mack. She is feisty, and I love the banter she has with her team. All the characters in this series are really well-developed and solid.

A killer is on the loose, targeting women and leaving their broken bodies scattered across Dublin's Dart train line. The victims appear to have no connection to one another, but their murders bear the same chilling hallmark—identical single red roses left at each of their crime scenes.

Alana receives a chilling message, suggesting the killer is hiding in plain sight and playing a sick game with her. If she doesn't find them soon, more innocent lives will be taken.

I read this book in one day. I had a hard time putting it down because the story unfolded so effortlessly and the writing is done well to keep me invested in the story.

A good plot with tension and twists; it is a solid read and a good addition to the series.

I would recommend this book and this author. I can't wait for more in this series. The cover is pretty cool, too.

#RosesfortheDead #NetGalley @Stormbooks_co

Roses For the Dead by Jenny O’Brien is book 2 in the Detective Alana Mack series. It is published on 14 February. This series is set in Dublin. Alana is a paraplegic, and in a wheelchair, determined to stay in the job she loves. A terrific story which starts off as a murder, although a particularly nasty one, but along the way of the investigation, it becomes something much more. We have an insight into the mind of a killer as a back story, but also the sad feeling of lives lost. Love that Alana is such an independent person but also love watching Paddy’s character developing and look forward to reading more in the series to see how that goes. Thanks to Netgalley, Storm Publishing and the author for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgallery and the publisher for this ARC. I loved this book and the Dublin setting. I love the authors writing style I found the book extremely easy to read and I read it a day! I would love if this was made into a tv series along with the previous book which is first in the trilogy.

All the characters in this book were likeable and my favourite one was Alana I throughly enjoyed this book as it was very fast paced and I was hooked from the very start. I can’t wait for the next book in the series. I’d highly recommended this book a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 star read!

I really enjoyed it! A good plot with convincing characters! I didn't guess till close to the end about the culprit, and that is good! I also enjoyed the fact that the police team's own private life stories didn't overwhelm the plot.
I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

This was another fantastic read featuring detective Alana Mack, this time investigating three gruesome murders with little evidential help that might be the work of a serial killer. On top of that she’s dealing with a missing person and a new boss who she has problems with from the start. The characters continue to be fantastic with some peeks at their private lives but primarily focussing on the investigation which is baffling in the lack of connection between the women and then the lack of help from the missing woman’s husband. The chapters from the perpetrator were insightful but chilling and the crimes were intriguingly gruesome. This wasn’t a fast paced crime read, in fact there were more dead ends than answers but it was well written and engrossing with a very strong conclusion. 9/10

Roses for the Dead is a thriller novel by Jenny O'Brien.
This novel had me hooked from the very first page and I kept reading until the end as I wanted to know what happened. It was fast and kept me guessing until the end. The author's writing is brilliant and is set at the right pace. A very enjoyable novel that I highly recommend.
❤️ Thank you to Storm publishing and netgalley for my arc ebook copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Detective Alana Mack and her team are struggling to solve the murders of two local woman. Seemingly unconnected, the MO for the deaths is identical, with white bed linen and a red rose left as a calling card. Three months after the deaths and no further forward, Alana is on the search for a missing woman, hoping that the murderer has not struck again. When another unidentified dead body turns up, the team suspect it maybe their MisPer, but until formal identification is made, there’s no way of telling.

This is the second book in the new series involving the Clonabee gang. Like the first, it’s a good, pacy plot, with decently evolved characters. Noticeably, as in the first story, the denouement is good, but very convoluted. It appears there is a lot going on, a lot to say, and so little time to do it! I do note that the author has stopped using Alan as a nickname for Alana, wise move 😉.

A good second instalment, with some characters who are becoming favourites like Paddy and Billy, though more background needed on the main characters to explain their characterisation.

Looking forward to book three.

Thank you NetGalley and Storm.

What an excellent, well written and cleverly plotted, read this is by the author. Detective Alana Mack based in Dublin is an interesting character, this is book 2 to feature her. I really like the characterisation, particularly Paddy, and the setting, The pacing is good, I was gripped from the start and I failed to guess the identify of the killer. It has everything you would want in a crime thriller and I highly recommend. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC