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Release date: September 20, 2017

Publisher: Bookouture 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Blurb: 

She fell in love with a killer, now she’s one too.

The suitcase was badly rusted, and took Erika several attempts, but it yielded and sagged open as she unzipped it. Nothing could prepare her for what she would find inside…

When a battered suitcase containing the dismembered body of a young man washes up on the shore of the river Thames, Detective Erika Foster is shocked. She’s worked on some terrifying cases but never seen anything like this before. 

As Erika and her team set to work, she makes the link with another victim – the body of a young woman dumped in an identical suitcase two weeks ago. 

Erika quickly realises she’s on the trail of a serial killer who’s already made their next move. Yet just as Erika starts to make headway with the investigation, she is the victim of a brutal attack. 

But nothing will stop Erika. As the body count rises, the twin daughters of her colleague Commander Marsh are abducted, and the stakes are higher than ever before. Can Erika save the lives of two innocent children before it’s too late? She’s running out of time and about to make a disturbing discovery…there’s more than one killer. 

Brilliantly gripping, Cold Blood will have you hooked from the first page and holding your breath to the heart-stopping and shocking ending. 

I’m absolutely thrilled to be one of the stops on the blog blitz for Cold Blood today!!

Review:

Erika Foster is back and I couldn’t be more excited! This is one of my favorite series out there and every single time a new book is released, I celebrate. I swear, not only does each book get better but there is a sense of maturity and growth, not only in Bryndza’s writing but also within the characters themselves. If you want to catch up with my reviews from the earlier books, here’s Dark Water and Last Breath. I read the first couple of books before I started blogging so no links I’m afraid! 

Erika undergoes quite a bit of emotional upheaval throughout this book and I loved seeing this side of her. Of course it wasn’t fun to see her struggling, but seeing how she handles various challenges and situations just provides such depth of character and really made me feel like I know her now. Peterson is still recovering and not on the job after the events in the last book, but Marsh is back and the dynamic between him and Erika is interesting to say the least. There’s also a new supervisor, Melanie and her and Erika are trying to find their footing with each other, Erika’s abrupt manner is not conducive to making friends. All of that to say, you go even deeper with Erika and team this time around and the characterization is just superb. 

This stays mostly in the present day as Erika works on a bizarre case where bodies are being found hacked up and stuffed into suitcases. There are flashbacks from a young woman named Nina starting in 2015 and ending up in the present day. At first I had no idea who Nina was, or why she was important but rest assured, things all come together in an impeccable manner that never fails to leave me breathless. 

A few distinct things make this series a standout for me. First, Bryndza always comes up with a fresh angle in regards to the cases Erika works on and this is no exception. You know how sometimes you’ll have a series you’re really into and then things sort of fall flat towards the middle? That doesn’t happen here, I’m just as invested and excited about these books as the day I finished book one. This really has everything a fantastic police procedural needs, it’s dark, gritty and disturbing, always intricately plotted, has a group of characters that you know and love, and pacing that leaves you on the edge of your seat the entire time. 

Overall rating: 5/5

Thanks to the publisher for my review copy. 

About the Author:

Robert Bryndza is the author of the international #1 bestseller The Girl in the Ice. The Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller is the first book in the Detective Erika Foster series. 

The Night Stalker, Dark Water and Last Breath are the second, third, and fourth books in the series, and the fifth book, Cold Blood is now available to pre-order.

Robert’s books have sold over 2 million copies, and have been translated into 27 languages.

In addition to writing crime fiction, Robert has published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels. He is British and lives in Slovakia.