Flesh and Blood - Caroline Mitchell

Reading Challenge Category: Free ARC from NetGalley

Official Blurb:

A string of suicides. A community in terror. And a chilling conspiracy only DI Amy Winter can crack.
A wave of apparent suicides hits a string of seaside resorts, but when a police officer is named as the latest to die, DI Amy Winter suspects there may be more than mere coincidence to these tragic deaths. But what dark motive could cause someone to throw themselves into the cold depths of the North Sea?
Someone in the community knows more than they are letting on, but Amy’s questions are met with resistance. A group of mysterious teenagers might hold the key, but why are they so afraid to talk? Meanwhile, after the release from prison of her serial killer mother, Amy is fighting her own demons.
In her toughest investigation yet, Amy must confront her dark past if she is to put an end to the carnage. What secret is so terrible that it’s worth killing a police officer for? Amy needs to find the answer, before the sea washes up any more bodies.

My Thoughts:

This is the fourth in the DI Amy Winter series, and after having read all of the previous books and loved them, I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed, there was just something missing from the book, and it didn’t grip me the way the previous books had.
I felt like the investigation came secondary to all of the officer’s lives and their own troubles. We did get to know some of the other officers a little better as a byproduct which was great, but this side of things was too heavily focused on. A lot of reviewers have said there wasn’t much of Lillian; however, I disagree; I think it was too heavily focused on throughout the story. I think Amy needs to move on from her past and concentrate on her job.
We are so used to Amy being proactive in the investigations in the past that her response to this one came as a bit of a shocker. Even though she keeps saying she must get back to the station, she spends way too much time in coffee shops either with her sister or other people that insist on meeting her there rather than the station.
Donovan’s actions were frustrating, also. He was keeping too much secret and jeopardising the investigation by doing so. Again, in the past, he would have reprimanded officers for doing what he was doing.
The ‘Mo’ sections, I really enjoyed until it came to the unveiling of who she was. It appeared when reading her recollections that it would be relevant to the current investigation; however, it isn’t, and I was left wondering what the real point to this part of the story was. It didn’t, in the end, really add anything.
I felt like we were being kept out of the loop of the investigation and the ending felt forced as a result. It just didn’t flow. The overall story felt lackadaisical, and it just didn’t grip me. It took me a while to get into the book as it is really slow, to begin with. It does pick up slightly towards the end but is still not in keeping with the high standards the previous books had set.

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