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DIE WITH ME
by Elena Forbes
Quercus, July 2007
352 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 1847241565


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

A young girl plunges to her death from a balcony in a church. She left a suicide note, but did she jump or was she pushed? DI Mark Tartaglia, DS Sam Donovan and the Barnes murder team soon discover that this is no one-off.

DIE WITH ME is a very promising debut novel that's strong on the atmosphere of London and the grind of a police enquiry. The basic premise isn't terribly new, but Forbes keeps you thinking to the end, and even when you reckon you've sussed what happened, she has a twist up her sleeve. And she plays fair with the nugget of information that gives the police their breakthrough – I mentally rapped myself over the knuckles for not spotting it!

The book covers diverse bits of west London, from posh terraces to seedy canal towpaths. It feels like a very realistic portrayal of a murder squad stretched to its limits. And Forbes presents us with a bunch of people with their private and professional flaws. The one thing that stops me putting DIE WITH ME in the absolute top division is the slightly strange characterisation in parts.

Forbes doesn't convince on the relationship between Tartaglia and DCI Carolyn Steele, who is parachuted in over his head to lead the enquiry. The much-mentioned conflict never seems realistic, as they are rarely in the same room and she doesn't appear to contribute much to the investigation.

In fact the female officers are a fairly unsatisfactory lot. DC Yvette Dickenson is eight months pregnant and not a lot of help around the place, Donovan (who is the most promising of the bunch) is doe-eyed when Tartaglia is around. And Steele is under-developed and shows no backbone at all – it's impossible to see how she got where she is, and why people appear to rate her highly. In fact, the DCI plot thread is by far the weakest, although it's obvious why it's there.

A significant loose end is left so that you know there will be more to come from Forbes. And on this evidence it should be worth the wait.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, June 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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