This was a fab read featuring mortuary technician Cassie Raven who has a special relationship with some of the bodies she attends as part of her duties. The latest one is rising pop star Brontë who Cassie knew from her school days and although the evidence points to suicide Cassie has her doubts. This has a great balance of Cassie’s own life and investigations into Bronte’s death as well as chapters told from the point of view of former detective Flyte which offers a solid police procedural side to the story. The story unfolds really well and the discoveries that reveal this is a murder investigation and the key characters are very intriguing, I was especially fascinated with DI Bacon as he had unexpected depths. The culprit was unexpected and the reason was tragic, especially the effect it had on others. Will definitely look out for the next in series. 9/10

‘Dead Fall‘ is book four in the Cassie Raven series and if you’re not reading these, you are very much missing out. This latest instalment starts with the death of a young celebrity. Sophia, aka Bronte, is found on the ground outside her apartment. At first glance, it looks as if she took her own life by jumping from her balcony. But Bronte’s mother isn’t at all convinced by that theory, and neither is our beloved hyper-intuitive mortuary technician Cassie Raven. Cassie knew Sophia in school, but feels like she let her schoolmate down all those years ago. Determined to make amends now and find out the truth about Sophia’s death, Cassie needs to figure out who can be trusted and who, if anyone, wanted to hurt Sophia, and why. This is one of those books that you pick up and before you know it, it’s gone dark outside and you missed dinner. ‘Dead Fall‘ is hugely addictive from start to finish and quite impossible to put down again once you’ve started reading. Considering there isn’t a deadly cat-and-mouse game going on or a race against the clock, that’s quite the feat. It is merely desperately wanting to know what happened to Sophia that had me hooked and turning the pages faster and faster. I had somewhat of a theory in my head, maybe slightly far-fetched but yet plausible somehow. True to form, I was entirely wrong and wasn’t at all prepared for the actual reveal. ‘Dead Fall‘ isn’t just about Sophia’s untimely death and finding out the truth behind it. It’s also about families. In this case, possibly the rather dysfunctional ones. But even though Cassie’s childhood wasn’t a conventional one, having been brought up by her grandmother – for reasons I won’t divulge here for those who’ve not read the previous books – she had a good life and she will always be grateful to her grandmother. Sophia’s parents, on the other hand, well … sometimes you just wonder why a married couple stays married, don’t you? And then there’s Flyte, whose life and marriage just fell apart when she lost her baby, and whose mother probably won’t be winning any awards any time soon either. Speaking of Flyte, after events from the previous book, she’s no longer a member of the police force. She’s more policing the police, making sure investigations are run properly, seeking out bent coppers. Flyte gets involved when Sophia’s mother complains that her daughter’s death isn’t investigated well enough. All these books later and I still have problems warming to Flyte. I understand she’s struggling with all sorts of things, but boy is she moody/cranky/bitchy

I only discovered Cassie Raven last year and I was excited to see a new book coming. In case you haven't caught on yet, goth Cassie is a mortuary technician working in trendy Camden, in London. Living on a canal boat with her cat, she has weathered a lot in her life so far, which gives her sympathy for the casualties of life who wash up, as it were, on the mortuary slab - and a natural antipathy for powers and principalities such as her own managers, or then local police. Cassie also has a special talent - the ability (sometimes) to hear the dead, enabling her to resolve issues for her deceased clients. Such as solving their murders. A supernatural twist like this could easily be overdone, made into a Get Out of Jail Free card, but Turner resists this. She uses the idea in these books with great subtlety. Cassie gets hints and feelings from the dead, not their detailed memoirs. It is, though, enough to spur her on to pursue justice where it seems to be lacking. This special sense is though somehow bound up with Cassie's own rather traumatic past, so she's very alert to the danger of simply projecting her own feelings onto the corpses she encounters in her job. And in Dead Fall, she needs to be. Local up-and-coming young singer Bronte, who has apparently taken her own life, is someone Cassie had unfinished business with from way back - unfinished business that leaves her feeling guilty, and means there is a real risk that she's turning nothing into something when she concludes that Bronte was, in fact, murdered. Nevertheless, she's not going to fail Bronte a second time, so Cassie begins to look into the girl's troubled life and background. In a novel that therefore explores the pressures of fame and success - and the exploitative nature of the music industry - Turner therefore riffs off Camden's reputation as an edgy, creative but diverse sort of place as well as well as documenting the hounding, online and offline, of a vulnerable young woman. Of course in the background is the tragedy that befell Amy Winehouse, another notable Camden figure as well as the prurient interest of the Press, the fans - and the bitter attentions of patriarchy. In Dead Fall we therefore get a real zinger of a story: a perplexing mystery with a very contemporary edge, one which draws on a very human tragedy. At the same time Cassie is trying to make sense aof her relationship the genial, Hooray Henryish Archie, a wealthy doctor who wants to take her out of Camden to a life in his own wholesome, rural milieu. There's a struggle for integrity too, I think, with Cassie also tempted by ex DS Phyllida Flyte. Buttoned up Flyte recently came out as gay, and there's a real romantic tension between the two women, a tension even more piquant because of Cassie dilates for police. Given the circumstances in which Phyllida left the Force in the last book, Case Sensitive, it's perhaps a little unlikely that she would be involved in a Camden case, as she is here, so soon, but I can let that go given the edge that her and Cassie's relationship brings to these books. All in all, another great episode in this series and I can't rate it highly enough. Get this one ordered ion.

Cassie Raven is a Pathologist Technician who shows great care for the recently dead. So much empathy that she can occasionally connect with them, hearing their last thoughts. Phyllida Flyte is a former Detective who is now working for the Police Complaints, investigating mis-handled cases. The pair of them collide when the body of Sophia is discovered next to the canal at the foot of a block of flats. Initially dismissed as a suicide by the attending Sergeant, Cassie 'hears' Sophia's calls for help whilst in the mortuary leading her to believe this was not a suicide. A media circus outside the mortuary causes the Police concern when they realise this is a 'Celebrity' death. Sophia is actually up and coming music sensation, 'Bronte'. Who's life was frequently in the headlines due to her drink, drugs and reportedly abusive boyfriend, Ethan. The case is handed over to Flyte following a complaint from 'Bronte's' mum at the initial mis-handling of the case. Can Flyte find the killer, now 10days has passed, the crime scene now cold? What follows is a story of Cassie's love-life and her attraction to her Current boyfriend, Bronte's ex-boyfriend and also Flyte. There is a need to flesh out the back story of characters but I did feel there was too much love interest for Cassie. If they had a pulse, she was interested. Cassie's occasional fantasy of hearing the voices of the dead isn't much of a distraction. Whilst its an interesting concept, it has been done better elsewhere but it certainly doesn't distract from the story. It's not overdone and is used sparingly to help the narrative. For me, the highlight of this book is Phyllida Flyte and her working relationship with DI Bacon (Streaky). With Flyte no longer being a Detective she has to let Bacon take the lead. Something she is clearly at odds with. This was my introduction to the world of Cassie Raven and its clear that their is an interesting backstory that is touched on in this book. The story of her mum and dad is one I would like to hear more of, her being murdered and the dad being imprisoned for it have obviously been told in a previous novel. Whilst this was an entertaining read with an interesting plot and unique motives, I would suggest it wise to read earlier Cassie Raven novels before picking up this one. Thank you to AK Turner and publishers Zaffre, for providing a free copy of this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.