Helen Fields has done an excellent job for a slightly different crime novel. The murderer has some serious issues but the direction of where he came from was such a great twist!!!

Perfect Crime by Helen Fields
Reviewed for Netgalley before release day.

This is the 5th book in the D. I Callanach series and with each book, I like them more and more. They just keep getting better.
You can of course pick up any of the books and read them in any order, but the back stories make much more sense if you read them chronologically.

Your darkest moment is your most vulnerable…

Stephen Berry is about to jump off a bridge until a suicide prevention counsellor stops him. A week later, Stephen is dead. Found at the bottom of a cliff, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are drafted in to investigate whether he jumped or whether he was pushed…

As they dig deeper, more would-be suicides roll in: a woman found dead in a bath; a man violently electrocuted. But these are carefully curated deaths – nothing like the impulsive suicide attempts they’ve been made out to be.

Little do Callanach and Turner know how close their perpetrator is as, across Edinburgh, a violent and psychopathic killer gains more confidence with every life he takes…

This book took me straight into the basis of the story, which again there are two cases going on simultaneously. There is always something happening which has kept me guessing. I found myself saying out loud ‘yes, no oh no’, quite a bit.

Helen Fields always seems to deliver emotion for me in this series and this book did not disappoint!

Fear (caught myself holding my breath)
Shock, the revelation of who what where and how (I realised I was reading faster, hoping I was wrong and will it all be ok)
and excitement because I was so ‘sold’ on something going right for a certain character.

The characters are familiar to me from the previous books. Yet there is still more to their characters to learn, I found.

I was not in the least bit disappointed by this book and it has the beginning of the next book in the series to tease and entice me, which it did!

I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Available April 18th

It took me longer than usual to read this book, not because I didn't find the story interesting and even catchy from time to time but because of the format of the ARC. The lines were broken unevenly, two chapters were doubled, not having a table of contents, not knowing how many chapters are there in the book...
But I liked the characters and the fast-paced story well enough, so I'm looking forward to reading the sequel (maybe in a better format!)

I loved this fast paced thriller! I have read all the other books in this series and this one is just of high quality. An excellent read. Highly recommended. Five stars from me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Helen Fields for the advanced copy of this book. I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

Thanks Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I'm a fan of the DI Luc Callanach & DCI Ava Turner series, having read the previous 4 I was delighted to read the newest installment.

This a well plotted crime mystery with enough suspense and engaging characters to keep you turning the pages, a worthy read.

This is Book 5 in the Callanach and Turner series by Helen Fields and is set in Edinburgh .

This is delves deeper into the lives of the two main characters and their team, from the senior officer who is a real character...

The story is fast paced, with plenty of twists in this well written, gripping novel. It’s about a series of murders that have been stage to appear to be suicides. Ava sees past this and it really becomes a race against time to stop the murderer from finding more victims. While it’s quite easy to guess who the killer is, this in no way spoils the tale at all, if anything I felt it added to the tension.

The likeable frisson between Ava and Luc is a nice aside and there’s the will they won’t they element...(a bit like Castle and Beckett)..

The second story in amongst the murders in is about Luc's pursuit of his mother’s attackers and this causes them both problems as they go against protocol and put themselves and others in danger.

An overall gripping and dark police procedural.....will be looking out for more in the series.

I would like to thank the Author/the Publishers/NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review

Another good book in this excellent series.I love the relationship/dynamics between the 2 main characters.The rest of the team are well fleshed out as well.This was a puzzling and complex case,and kept me reading away much too late as I wanted to just read another chapter, and then another one.....No spoilers but I really enjoyed this book,and am already looking forward to the next book.Thanks to netgalley and the Publishers for an ARC.

I love this series of books. DI Callanach and DCI Turner make a great team and the storyline in this book is even better than the previous ones.
10/10

A tense and well written novel.

The moment I read the blurb I knew this was something that I really wanted to read. The story itself is well executed and the characters are interesting and full of life.
I would recommend this for sure!

This was my first book in the detective series by Helen Fields and I've fallen in love with the charismatic Detective Luc and endearing Detective Ava. This has easily been one of my favourite reads of the year so far. Fields has created a story that will keep you engrossed from start to finish with his numerous breath taking moments and unexpected twists. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any mystery lover and look forward to catching up on the previous novels in the series.

Thankss to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book one of a new series from Helen Fields. I was impressed with the fact that there were a different number of crimes happening the same time as the Main Crime but it was still easy to follow. It's not for the faint of heart thought as there are some brutally written descriptions that actually freaked me out

Still this was a great read and it kept me involved and actually looking forward to reading it each day.

A typical British crime procedural. I almost gave up a quarter of the way through. There were several incidents at once and they were hard to keep track of, but I persevered and the pieces began to fall into place.

I wouldn't be inclined to read another book by this author. It was an okay read, but as the Brits would say, "not my cup of tea."

Thanks to Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review.

The 5th book in the increasingly badly titled "DI Luc Callanach" series (he is hardly in this one!) follows much the same template as the other 4 books. A body is found in mysterious circumstances, here it is the body of a young man who appears to have thrown himself from the top of a tower in East Lothian. Soon thereafter, other bodies start to turn up, all looking like suicides or are people who had previously tried to commit suicide. At the same time, another body turns up, this time with a personal connection to one DI Callanach. So again we have the two investigations running in parallel. Though because of the apparent connection, the eponymous DI Callanach is taken off active duty and is largely absent for the second half of the book.

The main investigation is interesting: someone taking against those who do not value their life and have tried to end it in the past, and he decides to end it for them. However, there is a twist along the way that just did not feel right. For this murderer to suddenly become a Red Dragon-style character was somewhat at odds with the story at that point.

The lesser investigation was more interesting as there was so much evidence suggesting Callanach committed the murder, though we believed he hadn't.

As with previous books, a story written in Edinburgh (or other cities with an identity) by someone who doesn't live there has a good chance of missing the mark with the dialogue. People we are led to believe are proper sumbags do not come across as that, their phrasing is just so wrong. I had found this in the previous books, where incidental characters had no discernible voice or characteristics and were just vanilla plot devices.

Similarly, the murderer at one point uses a phrase no Scotsman has ever uttered and that took me right out of the book.

The plot is more or less faultless, with all events and motives seeming plausible, except one issue right at the end where an item of evidence was so mis-handled as to be laughable, but served the plot perfectly.

On the whole, this was a good enjoyable read, but I had guessed the identities of the murderers quite early on. Far from original and moments that just felt like clangers.

I am guessing this is almost the last we'll see of Luc Callanach, who has (rightly) been relegated to support cast from book 2, in favour of the strong, better-defined, female character.

Thank you Net Galley. A well written installment in the Callanach & Turner series. The book kept me turning the pages. Plenty of twists and turns, with well written characters and detail. Recommended.

Fabulous love Helen Fields the story was so exciting and I can connect with Ava and Callaghan she makes them come alive in your mind and can’t wait to see what happens next and it’s written so well. Reading until the early hours I would definitely recommend this book.

Another fabulous installement in the Luc Callanach series. I confess to having a bit of a crush on him and have loved reading how his character develops.

Ava stands by Luc when he is placed at the scene of a murder and I was really hoping their relationship would develop further.

This was a really fast paced read with lots of twists and turns and I can’t wait for the next instalment!

Fabulous book! One of my favourite authors and this,once again, didn't disappoint! Already impatiently waiting for the next instalment!

I had read all four of Helen Field's books and knew I would not be disappointed with number five.
The only disappointment now is I have to wait for number 6.
I loved the plot, the pace, and the ending which was all genius. I highly recommend Perfect Crime and the series.

This is the first but not the last book I will read by Helen Fields. This was not only a good mystery but well written as well. Because it is the fifth book in this series, it took me a little while to be in sync with the characters but I was not at all handicapped or confused. The characters themselves were likeable and well drawn; none of them are perfect . I would certainly recommend this book for a good weekend read.

I have been a huge fan of DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach since I first met them in Perfect Remains, the first book in the series, in 2017. This is the fifth novel in which they appear and I was delighted to receive a review copy. In fact, I devoured it in two sittings. This is another dark novel set in Edinburgh (I really don't recognise the city of these novels) and it brings us further into the lives of the two main characters and the team around them, from their superior officer who really makes me smile to their colleagues who after so many outings feel like old friends.

The story line is fast paced, twisty and well written as you would expect from this series of novels. It features a series of murders based on suicides, almost meant to look like suicides, and it becomes a race against time to stop the murderer employing all the skills that Ava and team possess. I did guess the murderer this time but it in no way spoiled the book for me - it just made me even more glued to it to see how everything played out.

I love these books as much for the interweaving of the background stories of the main characters, Luc and Ava as for the thriller plot elements. It is obvious they are destined to be together (please, Helen Fields) but life and the past keep getting in the way. The second thread in this book involves Luc's pursuit of his mother attackers and brings him and Ava both closer together and further away as they break protocol and Ava, as his superior officer, puts herself in a difficult position as she tries to cover for him. I might have worked out the protagonist from the main story but didn't predict the dramatic ending to this second one and the implications for the pair.

So now I cannot wait for book six to see where the relationship goes next and to see the plot the author comes up with ... five books in the series, all 5 ***** for me. All Perfect Thrillers!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this review copy,