Leigh Russell has managed to breathe some fresh air into this series by mixing it up for this outing! Still packed full of tension, misdirection, twists and revelations, I devoured this book in one day. This is the 21st (!!!) book in the Geraldine Steel series but it can be easily read as a standalone and is probably a good place for a new reader to jump into it. This book sees Geraldine take a back seat in the story as she is on maternity leave so she isn't too integral to the main mystery. But she still makes her mark though.

When a young man is found dead at the bottom of his steep stairs, the landlord, who is a friend to Detective Inspector Ariadne Moralis’s husband asks for her help. She tells him he has to talk to the police. It soon becomes clear that the man was murdered and there is only a frail elderly lady who witnessed his death. She claims that someone fled from the scene and that it was probably one of his many girlfriends. Can Ariadne sort out what is her first case as a DI?

It was really a pleasure to see Ariadne up front and centre in this story and as a loyal reader of this series it was lovely to learn more about her and her motivations. Turns out she is a lot more like Geraldine than I thought! It definitely brought some freshness to the series and shook it up a bit. Geraldine is certainly off-centre so to speak in this outing as she is on her maternity leave after giving birth to her son Tom. Ian is blissfully happy but Geraldine is reluctant to accept she doesn't feel right and is desperate to return to work!

The mystery was a good one as there were very few leads for Ariadne and the team to go on. I didn't guess what happened that's for sure! It certainly was a good puzzle and it was although there were some nudges that I got I must have missed some. It was a brilliant and engrossing read and I can't wait for the next one!

Let me know if you pick this one up!

I read and appreciated other books by Leigh Russell but this was the first I read in this series.
It's an entertaining, solid and well plotted mystery that kept me guessing and reading as wanted to know who was the culprit and why.
I want to read other books in this series
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Geraldine has been off on maternity leave for nearly six months and now, at home with baby Tom, is seriously missing her work as a Detective Inspector in serious crimes. She also wonders if she has inherited traits from her own mother which leave her struggling to cope with a child. Ariadne Moralis is now acting DI in her place and, together with DS Naomi Arnold, soon has a new case. The reader has already heard how Lauren Shaw has discovered her boyfriend, small time drug dealer Jay Roper, has been two timing her. When he attacks her as she tries to dump him, they wrestle and he crashes down the stairs at his home. Having her doubts about whether it really was self-defence, Lauren flees her home before the police can visit her. What she doesn’t know and the post mortem soon reveals is that Jay was suffocated soon after he fell. A clear case of murder but by whom? With Lauren missing, the detectives are unsure whether she is a killer or a scared witness. They finally track down the other woman but she is no help, like the other witness, an elderly lady who seems confused. Soon Ariadne is struggling with her first big case and needs help from her old friend. Bored at home, Geraldine is only too glad to assist. And Ariadne will need all the help she can get in a double murder investigation where absolutely no one seems to be telling the truth.
Although not essential, I would definitely recommend reading this series in order to get to grips with all the history which has shaped Geraldine’s life and career so far and the relationship with both her twin sister and partner Ian. Geraldine is a dogged and tenacious detective, and her usually very reliable hunches are sorely missed by the rest of the team but fortunately her input is still built into a story very much centred around Ariadne this time. This is another very well told twisty and complex police procedural in an excellent long-running series and it will be good to see Geraldine back in her DI role soon I hope.

I’d like to thank Bedford Square Publishers, No Exit Press and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘Revenge Killing’, a Geraldine Steel Crime Thriller written by Leigh Russell, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Jay Roper, a small-time criminal and drug dealer, is arguing with his girlfriend Lauren when he falls down a flight of stairs. Lauren doesn’t know whether he’s just injured or dead, she doesn’t even know if she’s responsible for pushing him, and she doesn’t intend staying around to find out.

In ‘Revenge Killing’ DI Geraldine Steel is on maternity leave following the birth of her and Ian’s son Tom and Acting-DI Ariadne Moralis takes over from her temporarily. Ariadne and the team are called out when a body is found at the bottom of a staircase but what appears to be an accidental fall takes on more sinister connotations. As well as this investigation there’s a second thread to the plot, that of Yiannis who’s the landlord of the property where Jay Roper lived and friend of Ariadne’s husband Nico, who doesn’t want to speak to the police. I’m disappointed that Geraldine isn’t the lead detective in this novel as it isn’t as exciting without her but nevertheless it’s a good sound thriller, easy to read, and a welcome addition to the series.

A good addition to the Geraldine Steel series I've loved all of them including this one. Geraldine is on maternity leave which leaves Adrianne to lead the investigation of a man found at the bottom of the stairs. Plenty of plot twists and an occasional input from Geraldine. Thanks to Bedford Square Publishing and Netgalley for this review ARC

A decent enough read by a well respected author whose work I have enjoyed in the past.
It must be difficult for writers of fiction to maintain a high standard of work, but Leigh is amongst those who manages.

Enjoyable, but a little muddled and contrived in places. Looking forward to the return of Geraldine after her maternity leave. Still a good read.

This is a good addition to the Geraldine Steel series, although not my favourite. Geraldine is on maternity leave so does not appear much in this latest episode. The team are investigating the death of a man found dead at the bottom of stairs to his flat. The pacing was steady and there were multiple threads to the story as DI Ariadne Moralis leads the investigation. Not the best in the series but a good read nevertheless. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

A good cosy crime book which was a little bit of a slow starter for me but then the wheels started to run by about a third of the way through and my interest was captured a little more. There were fairly few main characters / suspects so it was quite easy to keep track of who was who and get to know their interlinks and developing roles in the murders. A man is found at the bottom of the stairwell in his flats, dead. He is a known small time drug dealer with multiple girlfriends, who visit him, two of which regularly and he also has an elderly nosey neighbour downstairs.
The focus is always on the girlfriends with only a brief check on the drug angle a bit lack lustre in investigation in that direction.
There are no real big surprises in the plot, it is a little pedestrian for me. There is a side story thread around the landlord of the property and his past life and history in Greece but that didn’t massively get going or capture my imagination.
It was nice to catch up with the previous main detective, from earlier books in the series, but slightly depressing to know that being a new parent isn’t really floating her boat and she’s pretty fed up. Some good parts but overall not quite there for me this time.

Another great book by Leigh Russell. A good police procedural that is tense with a few red herrings that kept me reading. A good solid 4 stars that I would recommend to anyone that likes this genre of books.

A fantastic police procedural type of read which is not to complicated unlike some which become far to difficult to follow. Gripping, tense with a few red herrings. My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

This was a really interesting read. After a man's body is discovered at the end of a flight of stairs, things just keep getting more complicated.

The landlord is not being quite straightforward about his opinion regarding what may have taken place here, nor is the witness entirely forthcoming. But the body has been moved, so foul play seems a given.

The fact that the dead man appears to have been dating two women simultaneously is also adding to the confusion - especially as one cannot be found, and the other one will not cooperate.

Detective Inspector Ariadne Moralis has her hands full with red herrings and dead ends. So it is just as well that her friend Geraldine Steel is inclined to help out with the investigation...

This is a gripping read, and a rock solid police procedural that offers a satisfying number of twists. It gets 3.5 stars.

An exciting thriller that drew me in immediately and revealed the characters early in the tale, so on storytelling and characters the novel scores very highly, and I am giving it five stars because, in my opinion, it is a brilliant read.