When silence falls, who will hear their cries?

The body of a young girl is found dumped on the roadside on the outskirts of Edinburgh. When pathologists examine the remains, they make a gruesome discovery: the silhouette of a doll carved in the victim’s skin.

DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach are struggling to find leads in the case, until a doll made of skin is found nestled beside an abandoned baby.

After another young woman is found butchered, Luc and Ava realise the babydoll killer is playing a horrifying game. And it’s only a matter of time before he strikes again. Can they stop another victim from being silenced forever – or is it already too late?

My thanks to Sabah at Avon Books for my review copy and the opportunity to join the blog tour.

Death, Taxes and a brilliant Luc Callanach book from Helen Fields…the certainties of life!

Perfect Silence was as dark, twisted and unflinching as I had hoped it would be. The “Perfect” series is very well named and Perfect Silence reaffirmed why these books are always the first series I will recommend when I am asked “What should I be reading?”

Dark days in Edinburgh when the body of a young woman is found on a roadside. Badly mutilated yet abandoned while she was still alive, the girl has had sections of her skin cut out of her abdomen – the missing skin forms the shape of a doll.

With no obvious clues (and no leads for the police to follow) a second woman disappears. Her young baby is found abandoned and inside the baby’s pram is a doll made from human skin.

Realising that time is against them Luc and Eva (along with the increasingly brilliant supporting characters) confront the possibility that a sadistic serial killer is operating in their city.

Ava’s attentions are divided by a spate of attacks on Edinburgh’s homeless drug users. A new variant of the drug Spice is debilitating users and turning them into shambling zombies, oblivious to their environment. Someone has been “branding” these catatonic users and slashing a deep cut into their cheek. As the victim count rises we see the damage increasing too.

Ava is under pressure from her boss to deliver results, not least because her boss feels Ava could threaten her position. No spoilers here but this storyline was a highlight of my reading year!

Everything was great in Perfect Silence. A really nasty murder spree. A strong and unpleasant second string of attacks. A squad room at Police Scotland of likeable and engaging characters and the wonderfully compelling writing of Helen Fields keeping the action going to the very last page.

I look forward to these books more than any other. If you are not already reading Helen Fields then I am sorry to say you are really missing out.

Perfect Silence is published by Avon Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perfect-Silence-Callanach-Crime-Thriller-ebook/dp/B079KMDGDV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536086379&sr=8-1&keywords=helen+fields