#BlogTour: Fair of Face by @CAJamesWriter #fairofface @saltpublishing

Published by Salt Publishing on 15th October 2017. My thanks to the author and the publisher for the review copy.

A double murder is discovered in Spalding some days after it takes place.

The victims are Tina Brackenbury, the foster mother of Grace Winter, a ten-year-old who escapes the killer because she is staying at her friend Chloe Hebblewhite's house at the time, and Tina's infant daughter. Enquiries by the police and social services reveal that some four years previously Grace was the sole survivor of the horrific massacre of her mother, grandparents and sister at Brocklesby Farm in North Lincolnshire, a crime for which her uncle Tristram Arkwright is currently serving a whole-life tariff.

Why did Amy Winter, Grace's adoptive mother, send her to live with a foster parent? Is it a coincidence that both of Grace's families have now been brutally killed? And is it possible that Grace's uncle, a notorious con-man, has found a way to contact her from his maximum security cell?

DI Yates and his team face a series of apparently impenetrable conundrums.

My Thoughts:

Fair of Face is the first novel I have read by Christina James but it is the 6th in the DI Yates crime series that is set in Spalding, Lincolnshire. I found that although part of a series, this book read very well as a standalone novel. 

I always find it tricky reviewing crime novels as I am loathe to give anything of the plot away. Suffice to say there were plenty of twists and turns in this story. The addition of children as witnesses is something new to me and made a refreshing change in a somewhat crowded genre. 

The police, including DI Yates are called in to investigate after the double murder of a mother and small child. Who on earth would kill a mother and daughter and what was their motive? The case seems a difficult one for the police to tackle.

It took me a short while to settle into the story, but once I did I found it to be engaging and compelling. There are a lot of characters and interactions to keep a track of but I think they added to the plot and the intrigue for me as a reader. 

This was a rollercoaster of a read that I found gripping and thrilling and I didn't predict the story that unravelled. 

I look forward to reading some more books from this series in the future. 

About the Author:

Christina James was born in Spalding and sets her novels in the evocative Fenland countryside of South Lincolnshire. She works as a bookseller, researcher and teacher. She is also a well-established non-fiction writer under a separate name.

 https://christinajamesblog.com/

Please do have a look at the other stops on the blog tour: