‘Count to three,’ her mother told her, the last words she would ever speak.

An Impossible Crime Scene
A wealthy woman is found brutally murdered in the locked fortress of her London mansion. Surrounding her are four mysterious objects, including a book on forensics by Dr Laughton Rees.

An Inescapable Past
As a teenager, Laughton’s life was destroyed after witnessing her mother’s brutal murder. Now a mother herself and forensic analyst, she is an expert on how to read crime scenes – but never works live cases.

An Uncatchable Killer
Pressured by the lead detective to help with the investigation, Laughton begins to realise that the objects left by the body are not just about the victim, they’re also about her. Her childhood was destroyed by one killer. Now she must catch another before her daughter’s is destroyed too.

I recieved a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

If a book is really good, a nailed-on five star score and a title I know I am going to be recommending for months to come then I tend to change my normal review style and open with an announcement along the lines of “This is a book you do not want to miss”.

Well folks – Dark Objects by Simon Toyne is all of the above. From the opening chapter to the wholly unexpected conclusion I was gripped, engrossed, entertained and all the other positive adjectives a reader experiences when a thriller is ticking all the right boxes. I bloody loved it and I did not want it to end.

Now I have to try to explain why Dark Objects was so damn gripping. I’m not sure I can do it justice.

Events begin in a large, secluded home in London. The cleaner, Celia Barnes, is arriving at work and as she opens the door to the house of Mr and Mrs Miller she has no idea it will be for the last time. Watching her is a killer who knows Celia will never again deactivate the security system to the Miller house and knows what will happen to her once she gets inside.

It’s a grim opening but it perfectly sets the pace and tone for the rest of the book. A murder has to be investigated, the principle suspect is nowhere to be found and police will be confounded in their attempts to investigate the crime scene. Why will they be confounded? It is thanks to one key piece of evidence which was left at the scene for them to find – a book written by Dr Laughton Rees. And more than that I cannot say here.

Laughton is approached by the police to assist with the investigation. But due to events in her past (which are covered in the blurb) she is reluctant to become involved. Laughton does not work live cases and restricts her forensic analysis to old investigations. But whether she likes it or not, Laughton is going to become a key figure in this particular murder.

The reader is guided through the story by following events where Laughton is involved but we get more than just her POV. We see the investigation with Tannahill Khan, the reporting of the story from less than pleasant journalist Brian Slade (who gets regular scoops on the murder investigation which will keep the police on their toes) and we even drop in on a neighbourhood WhatsApp group who will have their own take on events. There’s plenty to take on and the switching between the key characters keeps everything bubbling along very nicely.

Laughton is juggling the involvement in the murder investigation with a pressing need to find a new school for her daughter. As a single mother Laughton is determined to give her daughter Grace the best opportunities. However, Grace appears to be isolated in class and the school do not seem to be addressing Laughton’s concerns about bullying. This worry is further compounded by the rising knife crime in the capital – a theme which is revisited more than once through the story. Laughton wants Grace in a private school where she feels she will be safer and, hopefully, less isolated. Having Laughton, Tannahill and Brian Slade’s personal lifes opened up and explored as part of the story helped make all the characters more relatable, realistic and it gives readers that insight as to why the key players act as they do.

I am skirting around lots of the bits of Dark Objects which I would really like to discuss in a review; but to dwell on the bits of this book which sang to me would mean disclosing too many spoilers and we don’t do spoilers here. Suffice to say Simon Toyne has woven the clues into his story and I missed them all. I gaped at certain reveals and could not turn those pages fast enough as I reached the end of the story when all the clever story layers started to come together.

In short, Dark Objects is a fantastic murder thriller. We get the police investigation, the analyitical investigation of the crime scenes and the media spinning the story to meet their own agenda. I was hooked from the first pages and all other books were set aside until I reached the last pages – it commanded my full attention. Do not miss Dark Objects!

Dark Objects is published by Harper Collins on 7 July and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/dark-objects/simon-toyne/9780007551675