As much as I miss our live First Monday Crime panels, being online does offer one advantage. Our authors don’t have to travel to London which makes it easier for those further afield. So we’re very excited to have award-winning author, Deborah Masson, join us from her home in Aberdeen. Deborah won the Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut of the Year 2020 for Hold Your Tongue, featuring DI Eve Hunter. Out for Blood is the next book in the series. Before I share my review, here’s the blurb.

The Blurb

A young man, the son of an influential businessman, is discovered dead in his central Aberdeen apartment.

Hours later, a teenaged girl with no identification is found hanged in a suspected suicide.

As DI Eve Hunter and her team investigate the two cases, they find themselves in a tug-of-war between privilege and poverty; between the elite and those on the fringes of society.

Then an unexpected breakthrough leads them to the shocking conclusion: that those in power have been at the top for too long – and now, someone is going to desperate lengths to bring them down…

Can they stop someone who is dead set on revenge, no matter the cost?

My Review

I absolutely loved Deborah’s debut, Hold Your Tongue. DI Eve Hunter is back with her team (DS Mark Cooper, DC Scott Ferguson and DC Jo Mearns) in Out for Blood, investigating two incidents in Aberdeen. One is the murder of a young man, the other an apparent suicide of a young woman. It isn’t long though before the pathologist discovers that the young woman was actually murdered.

Masson explores the horrific nature of the sex trafficking trade. She does so with a keen sense of justice. Born as a consequence of rape, DI Eve Hunter is the perfect police officer to take this on board. She’s a powerful voice for female victims of crime.

The young man comes from a wealthy family but Eve and her team treat all victims the same. It doesn’t matter how much power and wealth is put in her way, she’s willing to knock it down and ruffle feathers to get to the truth.

Having read the first book I settled into this story quickly. There’s great camaraderie between Hunter and her officers and they’re a more cohesive team this time round. The viewpoint switches between them which is useful with two cases to investigate. There are other intriguing characters that we hear from but I’m not going to say too much about them. The plot moves at a fast pace and there’s great energy throughout the story. Not once did it sag.

The location of Aberdeen is put to good use once more as Eve and her team move from the highest of society to the lowest of the low. Although who is ‘high’ and who is ‘low’ isn’t always easy to tell.

I don’t know if this was a ‘tricky’ second book for Deborah Masson to write but it was an absolute delight to read. I can see this series running for quite some time as we’re beginning to discover more about the officers. And I’m really hoping that a TV company will option this brilliant series soon.

You can buy the e-book and pre order the paperback (out on the 10th Dec) here. Or support your local bookshop and buy from them.

Deborah will be telling us more about DI Eve Hunter on Monday 7th December on our Facebook page at 7.30pm GMT. All you have to do to join us is like our page and then tune in. Susi Holliday, Sam Carrington and A.K. Turner will be with us too.

The Author

Deborah Masson was born and bred in Aberdeen, Scotland. Always restless and fighting against being a responsible adult, she worked in several jobs including secretarial, marketing, reporting for the city’s freebie newspaper and a stint as a postie – to name but a few.

Through it all, she always read crime fiction and, when motherhood finally settled her into being an adult (maybe even a responsible one) she turned her hand to writing what she loved. Deborah started with short stories and flash fiction whilst her daughter napped and, when she later welcomed her son into the world, she decided to challenge her writing further through online courses with Professional Writing Academy and Faber Academy. Her debut novel, Hold Your Tongue, is the result of those courses.