Any debut crime/thriller novelist has the daunting task of standing out amongst the established greats of the genre. Helen Sarah Fields has no need to worry. She has well and truly taken the spotlight with this utterly captivating, thrilling book. I’m not going to divulge the basic plot because I think everyone deserves to discover it for themselves and enjoy the emotional reactions it evokes. But, I will say this: it is a clever, imaginative psychological thriller and it will make your heart race just a little bit faster. I gave this 5 stars because I genuinely could not put the book down. I thought the whole idea for the plot was unlike anything I’d read before and (worryingly) I enjoyed how sick the concept was - I will never think of false teeth in the same way again! Luc and Ava are very likeable characters and I’m looking forward to meeting them again in the next books in the series.

DI Luc Callanach has just moved to Edinburgh, his first call out is a possible missing person, a body found burnt beyond recognition, a tooth & baseball bat, a piece of cloth are used to identify her. Another woman is taken too soon after to be a coincidence. His only ally is DI Ava Turner, they lock heads as her case involves babies being left on park benches, 2 have died the 3rd survives. I was engrossed as the man staging the deaths takes the teeth from his victims, I was holding my mouth as a lot was unpleasantly described... But I read on with teeth clenched to see if the detectives could find out who had abducted 2 intelligent women and killed them, he would not stop at two would he? A very addictive debut, I can't wait for Perfect Prey and see if Luc can get over his past, and see if DC Salter (great name) gets a promotion!!

If you expect your thrillers to be plausible, this is probably not the book for you. If you want to read a police procedural, this is definitely not the book for you. On the other hand, if you expect your thrillers to be thrilling you have hit gold dust. If you want your hero to be handsome, intelligent, athletic and deeply troubled, then you will love Detective Inspector Luc Callanach, a half-Scots, half-French true product of the Auld Alliance. If you want your villain to be reprehensible and vicious, then this is the book for you taste. It is a rollercoaster ride through the murderous psyche of an extremely unpleasant man. There is absolutely no question that you, the reader, will want Luc Callanach to catch this man before any other woman falls victim to his misogynistic, lethal hatred. It is this obsessive need to control the other sex that lies at the heart of the story, and Luc Callanach is one of the victims of this obsession. It is why he is troubled and has ended up back in Scotland, which he left as a four-year old, in the first place. All of this becomes very quickly apparent in the story, so I am not giving away any vital details of the plot. This is much more of a thriller than a detective mystery. You know who the villain is more or less from the start of the story. You know who the goodies and the baddies are. What you do not know is how the goodies will bring the baddies to book, and that is what keeps you turning the pages. As I have indicated, there are points in the story where you may not be able to suspend your disbelief. For me, that came when the Episcopalian (i.e. Anglican) Bishop of Edinburgh agrees to pay for a psychological profiler because one of the victims is an Episcopalian priest. It is my view that Bishop John would have persuaded the Professor to do this pro Deo and the character is certainly arrogant enough to do exactly that without any concern for payment. That would have been far more believable. It is details of this kind that may give you pause for thought. [I am obviously too well-acquainted with the Scottish Episcopal Church to find this even remotely believable]. But it really does not matter because the story rolls forward like an unstoppable juggernaut, And you will enjoy the ride. The major theme of this book is the simple one – will the killer be caught? But there is also an underlying plot. Is Luc Callanach going to be redeemed? And how is this going to happen? Is Detective Inspector Ava Turner the woman to do it? Will her career be ruined because she pursues cases of infanticide with too much rigour, taking on the full power of the Catholic Church in Scotland? This is a good dramatic story. I do not find it hard to visualise the film or TV adaptation. I return to my original point. Do not expect this story to be plausible, but it is enjoyable. Read it for the fun of it.

Luc Callanach has moved from Interpol and his home in France. He has returned to Edinburgh, drawn by a Scottish father he can barely remember and trying to leave behind his past. Thrown straight in at the deep end, his first case as Detective Inspector is to look into the case of Elaine Buxton, when her missing persons case turns into a murder investigation. When another woman goes missing Luc and his team are on a race to find her before she befalls the same fate as Elaine. This book is a break from the norm in that the reader learns about the perpetrator from the very beginning. The opening is quite gruesome, with more than one occasion in the book that may cause a reader to wince or cringe and we see into the mind of a twisted individual. As the story progresses we learn more about this person and what drives them to do the things they do. As the story develops the reader becomes more and more involved in the case and ever more eager for the perpetrator to be caught. Along side this we see how Luc and his team progress with the case. The reader is privy to more information than the detectives so rather than a whodunit, this story is more of a look at how the police work out who the perpetrator is. This technique is a double-edged sword. It was refreshing to read a book and not be trying to figure out who was at fault. But I also found myself shouting and sighing at the police when they missed an obvious (to the reader) clue. I wasn’t sure what to make of Luc Callanach. There is much to like about him, he is tenacious, driven and forthright. But there are a couple of aspects about his personality that tarnish him, little things that made me not quite like him. It didn’t stop me liking reading about him. His team are a mixed bunch, there are the newer officers, eager to please and less inclined towards judging. There are those who are more defiant, quick to rush to judgement, with obvious effects on the team and the case as a result. Then there is DI Ava Turner. She is acerbic, quick-witted and the perfect partner for Callanach. This was an interesting, entertaining crime drama, with a variety of characters, with interesting back stories and a chilling villain. Perfect Remains is the first in the Luc Callanach series. I look forward to reading more novels featuring Callanach and Turner soon.