Tag: Helen Fields

Two new titles featuring DI Callanach and DCI Turner


Helen Fields has recently added two new titles to her Scotland-based police procedural series that began with Perfect Remains and continued with Perfect Prey and Perfect Death.

Perfect Silence gets off to a gruesome start. When the  body of a young girl is found, pathologists are called in and discover that a doll has been carved from the victim’s skin. Soon, another victim is found and it looks like there will be more unless DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach can get to the bottom of what is going on. 

Perfect Silence is the fourth title in the Helen Fields Scotland-based police procedural series. Hot on its heels comes the fifth, Perfect Crime which opens with a 30-something year-old man about to jump off a bridge. Stephen Berry is talked down by suicide prevention counsellor Rune McClure but within days Stephen is found dead, having apparently fallen from a castle at the top of a cliff. Before long, DI Luc Callanach and DCI Ava Turner are on the case, trying to discover whether the death was suicide or something more sinister. When further apparent suicides follow, things begin to look very murky.

What I liked most about Perfect Crime is how Helen Fields is developing the characters of some of the police officers that Callanach and Turner work — Lively, Overbeck and Tripp in particular. The relationship between Callanach and Turner also moves forward in Perfect Crime although perhaps not in an entirely believable way. I thought there was perhaps too much crammed into the ending of Perfect Crime and that it took away from what was otherwise a good read. Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to the next instalment in this series.

[Disclosure: I read an advance copy of Perfect Crime via Netgalley]

Perfect Death – the third title in Helen Fields DI Callanach series

If you are a fan of police procedurals, keep an eye out for the third title in Helen Fields DI Callanach series. Due out out this month (January 2018), Perfect Death follows on  Perfect Remains and Perfect Prey.

Perfect Death DI Callanach seriesCallanach is a French-Scottish fictional detective.  Along with his colleagues DCI Ava Turner and DS Lively, he investigates crime, corruption and murder in and around Edinburgh. I like the fast pace and interplay of characters in these novels. They are gritty, but there is also humour and the plots are strong.

In Perfect Death – the third title in Helen Fields DI Callanach series, a serial killer is on the loose in Edinburgh. The killer selects his victims carefully, building close relationships with them before subjecting them to death by poison. His motivation is enjoyment of the grief experienced by those closest to his victims.

A lot to like

There’s a lot to like about Perfect Death.  The pace is fast and the characters, including minor characters, are well drawn. There are nice references back to the earlier titles in the series. There is also good development of the relationships between the main characters.

As well as the main plot which features the murders, there are several subplots. The most important of these involves police corruption.  At times, this reminded me of the BBC Line of Duty series.

Another subplot concerns Callanach’s troubled relationship with his French mother. We are given more insight into why their relationship broke down. Thanks to Turner’s intervention, there are hopeful signs  it may improve in future. If this comes to pass, it will benefit Callanach’s personal life.

I enjoyed the grit and humour in the evolving relationship between Callanach and DS Lively.  There is also a nice undercurrent of romance between Callanach and Turner.

Perfect Death by Helen Fields is published by Avon Books.

[Disclosure: I read an advance copy via Netgalley.com]

Perfect Prey by Helen Fields | An absorbing police procedural

Three-quarters of the way through Perfect Prey by Helen Fields, at 10.30 on a summer’s evening, I dragged a lamp out to the conservatory so I could read on until I reached the end. That’s a sure sign of an unputdownable book. There’s lots to like about Perfect Prey. It’s an absorbing story with interesting, complex characters, narrated at a fast pace with lots of action and nice short chapters.

So, what’s Perfect Prey about?

This is is a policy procedural — the second in a series by Helen Fields featuring Detective Inspector Luc Callanach. The story begins with an apparently out-of-the-blue stabbing at an open air concert in Edinburgh.  Soon, it turns out the killing is just the first in a series of attention-grabbing murders. But are they linked? Who’s behind them and why?

Investigating the crimes are DI Callanach, a French/Scottish police officer with hints of an intriguing back story and DI Ava Turner.

At first, there are few clues to follow but when words connected to the crimes begin to appear in graffiti around Edinburgh it becomes clear that the murderer or murderers are announcing the occupation of their intended victims in advance.

When Luc needs help to track the online activities of the murder suspects, he turns not to police experts, but to a private operator, Ben Paulson and an online journalist. This creates tension with Ava’s boyfriend — a Scotland Yard investigator who specialises in investigating in cybercrime. You get the sense there’s more to this tension than just the cases they’re working on. Could it have something to do with Ava? Or it is just because the boyfriend is nasty piece of work?

These are really interesting characters with complicated personal lives and hints of a shared history.  As soon as I finished Perfect Prey, I went out and bought Perfect Remains, the first novel in the series. I look forward to reading it next and hope to read more Helen Fields in future. If you like crime thrillers, keep an eye out for her!

[Disclosure: I read an uncorrected proof of Perfect Prey thanks to publisher Harper Collins.]