A Life for a Life - Carol Wyer

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.
When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.
Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.
With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?

My Thoughts:

It took me a while to get back into this series, as it has been over a year since book two was released (maybe I would have been better off rereading the first two books as a refresher?). This picks up pretty much straight away, with Kate still trying to find justice for her husband’s death. You are reminded about what has happened before, but it’s not all in one lump sum; it’s spread out as and when is needed. This made it a little harder to remember everything but for new readers picking this up as their first read probably made it flow more fluidly.
The investigation was relatively tame for what I know this author is capable of. I did find the motives and reasons behind all that happened to be quite weak. I felt it was more a wake-up call for Kate about how she could have been rather than it being based on anything realistic. However, it did have an air of unjust throughout; the lives taken were such a waste.
Kate was quite frustrating throughout the book; instead of her complete focus being on getting the victim’s justice and finding the killer, she was preoccupied with her own troubles. She then threw in the mix applying for promotion; I didn’t feel like this was the right headspace for her to be in. It was just adding more into her troubled mind making her incompetent at her job. So I was finding her behaviour quite exasperating. Her constant need to reconnect and speak to Chris was too repetitive throughout the book.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad read, but I did take a while to get through it as there was just something missing from it to keep me hooked. Something was stopping me from picking it up and devouring it.