Thursday, August 23, 2018

Stalker on the Fens (DI Nikki Galena #5), by Joy Ellis (author), Henrietta Meire (narrator)

Tantor Audio, August 2017

DI Nikki Galena's friend, Helen Brooks, thinks she's being followed.

Helen was badly hurt in a building collapse a year ago, including some brain damage, and she's got some odd memories that don't seem supported by evidence. For instance, she thinks there was a man also in that collapsed basement with her, on the other side of a wall, who talked to her for a while before Nikki and Sergeant Joseph Easter, by chance the two officers closest to the scene, arrived. Yet no one else was in the building, nor was any evidence found that there had been.

So is she really being followed? Or is she still feeling the effects of the trauma and brain damage?

Helen's boyfriend, Andrew Gregory, is certain it's the latter. Nikki isn't sure he's right--but she's definitely not sure he's wrong. And every piece of evidence that seems to support Helen's story is quickly exploded--for instance, a scruffy young man who is seen hanging out near her flat, when picked up, turns out to be the unapproved boyfriend of a young woman in a neighboring house. Dad doesn't approve, so they have to sneak around.

Meanwhile, Nikki and Joseph are sure their old nemesis Cox is back in the area, but he's as elusive as ever. And there's a tension in the rougher part of town, that might be related to the Leonard family, whose patriarch, and unlikely friend of Nikki's, is dying. As much as she wants to help Helen, she's both very busy, and not at all sure how to help, or what kind of help Helen really needs.

Of course, everything changes when Helen is found dead.

This is a gripping, absorbing story, and Nikki, Joseph, their colleagues and friends, are all interesting people worth getting to know better. This is a series where the characters keep growing, becoming richer and more interesting as their experiences change them.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

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