A dark, dramatic and gripping thriller – a fantastic plot that will have you gasping for more by Robert Bryndza, you have to read Nine Elms.

The plot:

Kate Marshall was a promising young police detective when she caught the notorious Nine Elms serial killer. But her greatest victory suddenly became a nightmare.

Fifteen years after those catastrophic, career-ending events, a copycat has taken up the Nine Elms mantle, continuing the ghastly work of his idol.

Enlisting her brilliant research assistant, Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her prodigious and long-neglected skills as an investigator to catch a new monster. But there’s much more than her reputation on the line: Kate was the original killer’s intended fifth victim… and his successor means to finish the job.

This is definitely the type of author I’m always on the look-out for

Bryndza has really pushed the boundaries here with a thriller. I’d say it’s more of a horror but with the thriller plot and adding in a bit of crime fiction too – it’s a mix which makes for hauntingly good reading. I often find that horrors have no plot, but this story holds up to my high expectations and is, at times, genuinely gross to read (I love it).

I was really shocked about how fast-paced this story starts – I thought I might had missed a previous book and that ending was the beginning of this, but talking to others, they’ve said Bryndza’s other books start like this. It makes for a gripping read and impossible to put down; I devoured it in two sittings.

It’s probably one of the more disgustingly realistic thrillers I’ve read – it felt like something that could genuinely have happened and written about in some obscene world – the author doesn’t shy away from violence and gore, so if this isn’t your cup of tea, perhaps Nine Elms might not be for you.

The plot is fantastic – well thought-through and you’re given snippets of information throughout, all leading up to a shocking and hectic finale. Completely unfathomable and edgy.

The main characters!!! I loved Kate and Tristan and pray this is the start of a new series – they make a great team and their personalities work well together. Because Kate no longer works for the police within 50 pages, it’s definitely adding that extra dimension to the plot.

It’s a longer thriller at over 400 pages, but doesn’t feel like a long read – one who can easily curl up with a cup of tea, and the next thing you know you’ve read 80 pages and your tea is stone cold because you’ve been immersed into this horrifying world.

There were the few small questions, but not anything which takes away from the 4.5-star rating.

This is definitely the type of author I’m always on the look-out for – I already have the first book in the Erika Foster series, The Girl in the Ice, and it’s getting bumped right up my ‘to read right this second’ list!

Highly recommend for fans of M. W. Craven and Cara Hunter but with more gore.

I read this book as part of a read-along with the wonderful Tandem Collective. Find out more about them here.

Nine Elms, Robert Bryndza, RRP £7.99 (paperback); Book Depository 

Pages: 403

Publisher: Sphere

Genre: Thriller/ Crime Fiction