EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE.

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE by SHEILA QUIGLEY.

He watches them from afar. He knows who they are and where they are. He is waiting in the dark .......

A stranger stalks the streets of Houghton-Le-Spring and for Detective Inspector Lorraine Hunt he is getting too close for comfort.

Selina, the daughter of Lorraine's partner, DS Luke Daniels, is a beautiful and wilful sixteen-year-old with a dark past. Just as it seems she's finally getting back on her feet, she is attacked. Is Selina's past catching up with her? Or is there an even more sinister motive for the assault?

Before long, Lorraine and Luke's worst fears are realised, and a body is found. A young woman, brutally murdered,her heart cut out, and in its place - a single white rose.

Soon the White rose killer steps up his campaign. Is DI hunt imagining it, or does he have a message specially for her? As he circles ever closer, nobody escapes suspicion and Lorraine faces her toughest case yet.
..... From the outer back cover.

FIRST SENTENCE (from the prologue): Early February, bitterly cold, with a frost that gave everything it touched a shimmering cover of tiny pinhead diamonds.

MEMORABLE MOMENT: Scottie was a hugh bear of a man and had more hair on his body than his head, strands of black hair peeping out of his cuffs and over his collar. But, although he looked large and gruff, he had a big heart and a kindly face.

Careful not to include any spoilers, it's no big secret that Lorraine and Luke finally get together (or do they?). One of the things I have disliked about the three previous books in the Seahills series is the somewhat juvenile lusting between these two characters. Instead of being full of suspense and sexual tension, I just found the whole will they/won't they thing boring.

Every breath You Take - compelling, largely unputdownable and with it's fair share of red herrings. Why then didn't this fourth instalment quite hit the mark for me?

 With thankfully little swearing, the bringing back of Mickey and the Lumsdon's AND getting to know Selina's story this should have been one of the better books in the series and yet, for me, it was lacking something.

A bit predictable at times (how I long for a Sheila Quigley book in which the killer is a woman), I quickly guessed who-done-it and their motives, and with a murderer who came across as a bit of a pantomime villain ('HA' - if you have read the book you'll know just what I mean) I couldn't help but feel just a tiny bit disappointed and yet not so disappointed that I shan't be eagerly awaiting book 5, Thorn In My Side, to be released later this month.

A Book Club competition win, signed by the author, Every Breath You Take was my second book read for the SEPTEMBER SPECTACULAR READING CHALLENGE (click HERE for book one and HERE to see what others are reading as their challenge.)