Tess Monaghan has finally made the move and hung out her sign as a private investigator for hire, complete with an office in Butchers Hill. Maybe it's not the greatest address in Baltimore, but you've got to start somewhere. Then in walks Luther Beale, the notorious vigilante who five years ago shot a boy for vandalising his car. Just out of prison, he wants to make reparations to the kids who witnessed his crime, so he needs Tess to find them. But once she starts snooping, the witnesses start dying. Is the 'Butcher of Butchers Hill' at it again? Like it or not, Tess is embroiled in a case that encompasses the powers-that-be, a heartless system that has destroyed the lives of children, and a nasty trail of money and lies leading all the way back to Butchers Hill.

Baltimore provides an interesting back story and Tess Monaghan is enough like Sue Grafton’s girl detective to please me very much. This is an intelligent member of the detective novel genre. Now I’m looking for the next!

Going into the female authors BookBox.

Taken from the female authors bookbox.

This was a hard one to rate as I enjoyed the mystery part of the novel, but was driven mad by Tess's grandmother's toxic behaviour and the way the rest of the family tiptoed around her and put up with her nastiness. This just created a stressful and unhappy life for everyone. Life is too short for that nonsense!

Set free in the Little Free Library. Happy reading!