A ritualistic murder and the discovery of a barely-alive victim who has been tortured and left for dead sparks the beginning of a complex and horrifying investigation into a series of religious murders. Detective Anjelica Henley and the rest of the serial crimes unit race to apprehend the killer before the bodies can continue piling up.

The crime and mystery elements of this book were really good – the story is compelling and difficult to predict, but some of it gets lost in the telling as the narrative is a bit long-winded. Themes of race, mental illness and religious-fanaticism are touched upon and dealt with well, I felt.

I didn’t realise before reading that this is the second book in a detective series. As it is centered around a new case, I wouldn’t say that reading the first book, The Jigsaw Man, is completely necessary, but it would certainly be beneficial as the previous case is referred to frequently and I did feel I’d missed some significant events having not read the first book.

I liked the characters and enjoyed the dynamics of the SCU team, but again I feel the connection to them would have been stronger had I read the first book.

The Binding Room is the second book in the series following Inspector Anjelica Henley, and follows directly on from the first book, The Jigsaw Man. I haven’t yet read The Jigsaw Man, but didn’t feel that this spoilt anything – there were hints as to what happens in the first story, without overdoing it so that I can definitely go back and read it now without feeling that I know too much!

With The Binding Room, Nadine Matheson really throws us right into it from her prologue, where she depicts a man being brutally tortured! I wasn’t sure if I would have the stomach for the rest of the novel; but we quickly move on to meet Henley, who has been called in to investigate the murder of preacher, Caleb Annan, found dead inside his own church.

But the detectives find more than they were expecting when they arrive to investigate and discover the tortured victim from the prologue.

From there, the story becomes ever more gripping as interconnected crimes come to light, and the duo of Henley and Ramouter delve into the world of exorcisms, and the sordid past of our murdered pastor.

Alongside the disturbing murders and intrigue as to who is behind them, Matheson weaves in the very real issue of racism and racial bias both by and within the police force. The experiences of the central characters are very important talking points – whilst the murders are (I hope) fantastical, the prejudices they discuss are real.

The characters of Henley and Ramouter are really strong and likeable – I am definitely going to go back and read the Jigsaw Man, and equally look forward to where book number 3 may take us! The twists and turns in this were excellent, a good pace throughout, I was always kept guessing, and it just all wrapped up in a very satisfying manner! Expertly done!

My first book by this author having not read The Jigsaw Man, this didn't stop me from getting to know the detectives and enjoying this slightly gruesome and thrilling book. Lots of twists and turns and hard to put down, definitely recommend.

This is the second book following DI Henley and the Serial Crime Unit at Deptford – and it doesn’t disappoint. The book begins with team members still trying to come to terms with the traumatic events of the first book, and manage their anxieties whilst getting back to work. A new case then dominates their thinking – an evangelical pastor has been found dead in the church that he runs in South London. More disturbingly, during a search of the church, Henley and Ramouter find a locked room, in which a young man is barely alive, with all the signs of torture.

What follows is a sometimes disturbing trawl through damaged families, young men and women struggling with mental health issues, and evidence which suggests they are being subject to torture under the guise of exorcisms. How is the dead pastor involved, and how much does his personal life have to do with his death? Is his wife as innocent as she purports to be, even when confronted with the reality of her husband’s constant philandering?

The investigation narrative is interwoven with Henley and Ramouter’s own difficult homelives, which brings their characters to life and shows the frailties and problems that the people we entrust with our safety have to deal with, whilst carrying out some of the more gruesome tasks of police life.

Matheson builds on her excellent debut in The Jigsaw Man and takes us further into the depths of South London life.

Nadine Matheson is the author of “The Jigsaw Man”, the first in the DI Anjelica Henley books and “The Binding Room” is the second and equally grisly police procedural thriller, in this addictive series.

- Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley confronts a series of ritualistic murders in this heart-pounding thriller about race, power and the corrupt institutions that threaten us. Drawing on her experiences as a criminal attorney, Nadine Matheson deftly explores issues of race, class and justice through an action-packed story that will hold you captive until the last terrifying page —

This book literally has it all, every box is ticked for a fast paced, action filled thriller, featuring gruesome and torturous deaths and killers who have no remorse. I do have a soft spot for books of this genre and for me, the more sadistic and toe curling the better. “The Binding Room” ideally fitted its genre and combined with a cleverly created police procedural, along with very individual and unique characters, this
many layered story is engrossing and brilliantly terrifying.

Plenty of twists and turns keep you on your toes and the main topic of mental health issues was sympathetically handled and researched. An excellent author and certainly a one to watch, I foresee a lot more from Nadine in the future and some further spine tingling stories.

Nadine Matheson was born and lives in London. She began her working life at the BBC and now practices as a criminal defence lawyer. Her crime fiction novel, “The Jigsaw Man”, has been optioned for TV by Monumental Television.

#TheBindingRoom - 4 stars

This is my first Nadine Matheson book and even though this is the second novel in the series I was able to get to grips with the characters and the plot (I will be reading The Jigsaw Man ASAP). Both the characters and storyline was gripping and I finished the novel in two sittings. The twists and turns were spectacular and as the twists and turns were revealed and more suspects introduced I was kept in suspense until the last moment when all was revealed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

‘In this room... No one can hear you scream.’

We are back with the Serial Crimes Unit, but this time, DI Henley and her partner DI Ramouter are investigating not only the murder of a religious leader but the near murder of a young man who was hidden in a concealed room. He was found bound to a bed, having been horrendously tortured.

This case is most definitely not straightforward, when more bodies are found, it becomes apparent that something really sinister is afoot. These bodies have no obvious connections, but there has to be a reason for them being bound and tortured, and Henley’s job is to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I adored The Jigsaw Man, as did my mum, and The Binding Room did not disappoint. Once again Nadine had me hooked with the most gruesome opening scene. There were so many twists and as much as I tried to tie all the pieces together, I just could not get to the bottom of this case. Plus, there were quiet a few gasping moments, I mean where I actually gasped out loud! I also loved how we are given more insight into the lives of Henely and Ramouter. Their working relationship is just getting stronger, making them a formidable team. One tip, if you haven’t read The Jigsaw man, why!? Ha! I recommend picking it up first and then get straight into The Binding Room.

Another #autobuyauthor to add to the list!

NADINE MATHESON – THE BINDING ROOM ****

I read this novel in advance of publication through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

At times gruesome, this is a fast-paced novel that follows Henley, the detective from her first novel, and her team, family, and lovers (some of which overlap) which is given added punch because she is black and has to deal with black suspects who see her as betraying people of colour by joining the police.

Don’t want to give too much away, but this involves the murder of Pastor Caleb Annan, the founder of a group of churches that charge their congregation extortionate amounts of money each month to be members. Not quite the saint people believe, he is having affairs with several female parishioners.

Annan is not the only body in the woodpile – the body of a young man is found in another part of the church, and it is clear he has been tortured and abused…. But is still alive. And he is just the start of the body count.

Twists and turns arrive rapidly, as well as just enough of the personal problems of Henley, still needing treatment after the shocking death of a colleague and her own attack by a presumed dead monster to give depth and backstory.

All this is intertwined with the whys of the case, why is someone torturing people? Especially as Caleb is dead. Can it really be exorcisms taken too far?

Written by Londoner who is also a criminal solicitor this reeks not just of macabre death but authenticity. Well worth a read.

DI Anjelica Henley and Detective Salim Ramouter are called to a church where the pastor has been viciously murdered. The ramifications across the community and church reflect badly that the Pastor is not as he seems. This was fantastic! I was hooked and loved it. A bit grizzly in places but I’m here for that! Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This is the second book in the DI Angelica Henley series, and if you enjoyed the first (the jigsaw man) then you are going to love this.
I really enjoyed the first book, and found this one even better. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would.
Highly recommended and I can't wait for book 3.
Thanks to netgalley for this advance read.

A stabbed, dead pastor, Caleb Silas Annan has been found in a church in Deptford.; others are turning up having been tied up and tortured and left on beds in an upstairs room including a young man though he is still alive. Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley and the Serial Crime Unit know they have their work cut out. As the investigation begins Detective Inspector Henley starts to identify the similarities between the modi operandi and the deeper the investigation gets, it is apparent that there is no shortage of suspects.

Though it has a daunting 500+ page count, with its pacy and dark plot, and unguessable twists, The Binding Room is seriously suspenseful, gruesome and atmospheric and will not disappoint. I can follow instinctive and smart DI Anjelica Henley in this newish crime series when book three comes out.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from HQ via NetGalley at my request and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

This is the second book in the Anjelica Henley series and although The Binding Room can be read as a standalone, I think I missed a lot by having not read The Jigsaw Man first, so it took a while to get to know her team.
The murders are quite gruesome, and I usually steer clear of that sort of content, but the plot was intense and cleverly written, which kept me reading.

Ideal for those who enjoy gritty crime thrillers, but read book one first!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

This is a great read and one I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought this was a very thrilling read, although a bit gruesome at times, and was very, very hard to put down. I love the characters Henley and Ramouter, and enjoy reading of the growing rapport between them, and how their working partner relationship is becoming a good friendship. Henley and her team investigate a murder of a local pastor in his church, and find a man nearly dead in another room in the building. Who is he, how did he get there and what happened to him? When more murders follow the team have their work cut out to find the murderer. I was drawn into the story right from the first page and the author held my attention right to the end. The author has a great style of writing, for me, she makes her characters jump out of the pages and become alive in my mind and I can picture the scenes when reading. The plot line was very believable and well thought out and certainly kept me absorbed in the story and characters. There were many story threads here, which slowly begin to tie up and come together towards the end. Nadine Matheson has created a great set of likeable, believable and realistically portrayed characters here that you just like from the start and I found myself rooting for them and willing them on throughout the book. There were lots of twists in the plot which I loved and the book raced to a thrilling ending. I think this is shaping up to be a very good series and look forward to the next book, I’d recommend this book if you like gritty crime, police procedurals although I would say read the books in order as events from The Jigsaw Man are referred to here and you’ll know the characters and their histories.

Overall a great, entertaining and thrilling read which I loved.

A twisty, gritty police drama using the same characters as are in the author's previous work, The Jigsaw Man. Having not read the first novel I found it took a little while to get to grips with the "team' and I was missing some of their history which is presumably explained in the earlier novel. That said, the characters are all quite engrossing and I was soon swept along with the plot.
Uilana Piontek discovers the body of Pastor Caleb Annan in his church. He has been killed in a frenzied attack that must have left the killer covered in his blood. Whilst searching the building DI Angelica Henley makes a further chilling discovery. A young man has been tied up and tortured in one of the back rooms of the church. He is barely alive and it takes the team some while to discover who he is and what he was doing there.
The investigation into Caleb's death is not helped by the local MP who claims that because the young man was white and the pastor was coloured, the team is not investigating his death as thoroughly or speedily as they might. Indeed, racial tensions run quite high through this book and it is part of what made it realistic and different.
The characters are well drawn, with several of them having complex back stories. DI Henley is intelligent and tenacious and hardworking but is putting her family relationships at risk. Her assistant Ramouter is also battling his own problems as his wife has early onset dementia and is still living in Bradford while he has transferred to London.
This is quite a long book, and it touches on quite a few different topics - racism, mental health, and religion to name a few. I found it a grim read in places, but would be happy to read more about this team of detectives and will certainly look out for more books from this author.
With thanks to Netgalley and HQ for an arc copy in return for an honest review.

When a well known Pastor is discovered murdered in his church, the police also discover a secret room with a barely alive and tortured man.

Although it is the second book in a series, I don’t believe you have to have read the first one to be able to pick up the story and become involved in the characters lives, loves and despairs.
This twisty thriller certainly had me guessing until the end.

What to say about this book?

A) I LOVE Henley, she is unapologetically her, she is still carrying the trauma of what happened in The Jigsaw Man and yet her focus is always on doing the right thing despite the myriad of difficulties life throws in her way.

B) This novel treads that glorious line between horror and crime in such a great way, the binding of the title is reflected on so many levels throughout this twisting, turning narrative. Binding wife to husband, mother to child, ideology to reality and religion to salvation as an extended metaphor for the central crime of the novel is absolutely brilliant.

The challenges of providing justice to the victims of crime in a system that uses the victims as political point scoring exercises, fighting institutional racism, AND homophobia are all day to day realities for the Serial Crimes Team.

Although they are not technically involved in a serial crime, rather drafted in to help with what looks like a hate crime against the black preacher responsible for a London 'mega church' soon takes a deep and nasty dive into the way those with mental health issues are discarded from society at large. This is reflected in the trauma suffered by Henley and her team which lingers on from their last investigation for which some, including Henley, are having therapy, The stigma which is attached to mental health is so eloquently and movingly rendered, and you feel such anger towards those who would exploit the vulnerable, the desperate and the weary.

What appears to be a simple crime soon descends into so much more as the subsequent search of the church run by Caleb Annan and his wife reveals a hidden room occupied by an almost dead young man, bound to the bed and hideously tortured. As his widow , Serena, courts the local MP and media accusing Henley and her team of focussing on the not quite dead white man not her black husband, Henley has her hands full juggling the needs of her team, a complex crime investigation and her husband who feels neglected by her lack of need for him.

I honestly felt so annoyed as she was juggling being a mother, a superior officer and yet also deal with her bosses as well as Rob wanting a second child-he in his clumsy way was trying to pull her back to focussing on her family and cope with the death of her mother but the way he went about it made me want to pull my hair out.

She is being pulled in so many directions and the depiction of what life is like for the modern, professional woman was absolutely spot on. No matter what you do there is always someone feeling neglected and usually it is Henley.

Henley is someone who is flawed but fabulous, I love her energy, her determination to stand up for those who are unable to do it themselves and her unerring sense of justice.

As I was reading this and texting a friend who I have been nagging to read 'The Jigsaw Man', explaining why she needs both these books in her life,I have been 100% unable to put it down or cheat on it with another book. There are so many complex-not convoluted, but complex-threads to this story that you want to keep going to the very end.

The exploitation of the vulnerable and the way it is explored is done in such a humane way, the story flows logically and with such a great variety of characters that you want to know more about each of them. My hope is that this series will run and run because Nadine Matheson is the real deal. In an often over crowded marketplace of police procedurals, she stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of storytelling, characterisation and social injustice. Simply put, this is  must read.

Started quite dark with the fatal stabbing of Caleb Annan a pastor of the church who thought he was the prophet and by all accounts a man that couldn't keep it in his trousers.
The pastor's wife Serena is a piece of work with an I'm black inferiority complex. D I Angelica Henley investigates and on arrival to the scene commences to search the rest of the church and finds a hidden room, inside a man just about clinging on to life due to the fact of the torture he has endued.
A lot going on came together quite nicely but, the characters are so bland, none of the people in the book seem pleasant made me feel why bother to investigate who cares.
The D.I is a very bleak nauseous person it's a wonder she is married, but according to the way, I read it maybe not much longer. she is a miserable piece of work.
I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for a copy to read and review and this is my honest review.

I was pleased to receive a copy of this book as I loved the Jigsaw Man and Henley and was looking forward to more about her.
This was an enjoyable read and suitably gruesome with plenty of horrible murders to keep the team busy and keep us all guessing.
I found it was a bit long and there seemed to be loads of characters which was initially a bit difficult to keep track of. I found this read like a standalone but there were a lot of references to the previous book, but these weren't detailed enough if you hadn't read it. Also Pellacia's constant tantrums were a bit much.
Looking forward to the next one
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for my eARC in return for my honest review

After having read and thoroughly enjoyed the first in this series, The Jigsaw Man, I was itching to get my grubby little eyes on this and I wasn't disappointed.

This can be read as a standalone but you will get more out of this book if you've read The Jigsaw Man but I wouldn't say it was essential.

Once again we are treated to a great story, fantastic characters, twists and tension all told at a great pace. Warning! There are some pretty grim scenes and gruesome descriptions so if that's not your thing, I would probably give this a miss.

This is quite a long book and I can usually lose a bit of interest part way through but not with this; I was totally invested from start to finish and I would happily recommend this to others who enjoy dark police procedurals.

I am looking forward to the next instalment to find out what other twisted thoughts Ms Matheson can come up with to intrigue and shock and I must give thanks to HQ and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Binding Room and to share my thoughts.

I loved the Jigsaw man so was so excited to read The Bidding Room. Unfortunately I found it a little slow and there was a lot of coverage of the back story which I felt impacted the current storyline.