Dark Memories by Liz Mistry #BlogTour

 

"The drizzle made the crime scene more sordid somehow. Dingy and dark, with shadows hovering just outside the lit crime scene area, it had the appearance of an apocalyptic world - a lawless one. The very thought of that made DS Nikki Parekh shudder".

Dark Memories by Liz Mistry, the third book in the DC Nikki Parekh series, is a fast-paced and nail-bitingly tense crime story. 

Last year I reviewed Broken Silence (the 2nd book in the series), a gripping and taut Northern Noir thriller. As soon as I saw that the next book in the series was available for reviewing, I knew I had to read it.

When the body of the local homeless prostitute is found under Bradford's railway arches, DS Nikki Parekh and her partner DC Sajid Malik are on the case. Nikki knew this woman - Peggy Dyson, who had been a friend of her mother from years ago. She "tried everything she could to help Peggy, but Peggy had lost too much, fallen too far and become too reliant on her various fixes to respond to Lalita's overtures".

The death of a "worn-out junkie wasn't on anyone's priority list". "Still, no matter how slim the chances were of finding the perpetrator, Nikki had to try".

When the first anonymous newsletter clipping arrives in the mail, Nikki suspects the local journalist Lisa Kane, her long-standing adversary, might be mocking her.

Another body is discovered. A murder, which is seeminly unrelated to the death of the junkie. That is apart from a second anonymous letter containing another clipping from a news report relating to the investigation. "None of it necessarily directly related to her, as fas as she could determine. Still, it made her nervous".

And then the third envelope arrives, with the old diary entries which make a very disturbing reading. "It seemed too coincidental for her to receive three anonymous missives so closely together..." Nikki is unsure what all this mail is supposed to mean. "She'd been threatened plenty of times, but these letters weren't overt threats - were they? They seemed more like clues to Nikki - but clues of what?"

The third murder happens on Nikki's old street, just opposite the house where she grew up. Her childhood was traumatic, but Nikki is a suvivor.

Underneath the third victim's body there is the diary from which she received several pages earlier.

Liz Mistry doesn't shy away from the darker side of crime in her stories. In the previous book in the series she explores the themes of the human trafficking and modern slavery. Dark Memories also has scenes which are very hard to read.

There are potential triggers in this book - such as child abuse, domestic violence, murder. 

As the violence escalates, Nikki and her team have to find the links between the three victims. To do that, she has to revisit the past. Lalita's and her memories might hold the key information to solving the identity of the murderer. "For a long time now, Lalita had wanted to open up to her girls about their childhood, but at the back of her mind she'd always wondered if her desire to get things off her chest was more for her benefir than theirs".

The tension is building and building.

Will Nikki be able to catch the killer, before he moves on to his next intended victim?

We observe the plotline unfolding from different perspectives: we watch Nikki and her team conduct the investigation. 

Alongside it, the story is being told from the perspective of the killer. We're inside his head, and while we might not be complicit, it feels distressingly voyeuristic. 

Dark Memories is a tough, edgy, uncompromising and thoroughly absorbing thriller. I cannot wait for Nikki's next adventure.

Purchase Links

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Memories-addictive-nail-biting-Detective-ebook/dp/B08NZ4LV2R

US - https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Memories-addictive-nail-biting-Detective-ebook/dp/B08NZ4LV2R

Author Bio – Born in Scotland, Made in Bradford sums up Liz Mistry’s life. Over thirty years ago she moved from a small village in West Lothian to Yorkshire to get her teaching degree. Once here, Liz fell in love with three things; curries, the rich cultural diversity of the city … and her Indian husband (not necessarily in this order). Now thirty years, three children, two cats (Winky and Scumpy) and a huge extended family later, Liz uses her experiences of living and working in the inner city to flavour her writing. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’ whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath.

Struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety for a large number of years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits the MA in Creative Writing she took at Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. 

Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. One of the nicest things about being a published author is chatting with and responding to readers’ feedback and Liz regularly does events at local libraries, universities, literature festivals and open mics. 

She also teaches creative writing too. Now, having nearly completed a PhD in Creative Writing focussing on ‘the absence of the teen voice in adult crime fiction’ and ‘why expansive narratives matter’, Liz is chock full of ideas to continue writing.

In her spare time, Liz loves pub quizzes (although she admits to being rubbish at them), dancing (she does a mean jig to Proud Mary – her opinion, not ratified by her family), visiting the varied Yorkshire landscape, with Robin Hoods Bay being one of her favourite coastal destinations, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her blog, The Crime Warp. 

Social Media Links –

FB https://www.facebook.com/LizMistrybooks/

Twitter @LizMistryAuthor

Website: https://www.lizmistry.com/

This review is part of the blog tour, please check out what the other book bloggers thought about this thriller.

Many thanks to Lis Mistry and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!