This review is written with thanks to Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read and review Last Request.

Blurb:

When human remains are discovered under Bradford’s derelict Odeon car park, DS Nikita Parekh and her team are immediately called to the scene.

Distracted by keeping her young nephew out of trouble, Nikki is relieved when the investigation is transferred to the Cold Case Unit, and she can finally focus on her family.

But after the identity of the victim is revealed, she’s soon drawn back into the case. The dead man is a direct link to her painful past.

As the body count begins to rise, Nikki must do everything she can to stop the killer in their tracks before anyone else gets hurt – even if it means digging up secrets she had long kept hidden…

Review:

Despite hearing lots about her Gus McGuire series, I’ve never actually read any of Liz Mistry’s previous books, so a brand new series seemed the perfect place to start. In Last Request we meet Detective Sergeant Nikki Parekh, who is intelligent and feisty, but has some issues from her past which do rear their head as she works on this case. Her determination to solve the case does leave her daughter and partner wondering where her priorities lie and this did draw some comments from other Pigeonhole readers, however, I see her determination as a good thing, and a detective with no flaws doesn’t really make for an interesting story! I definitely believe that Nikki has potential and I look forward to seeing where this series will take her.

Set in Bradford among landmarks that are recognisable to me, Last Request has a brilliant sense of place. I was always able to picture the locations Nikki visited, which allowed me to feel closer to the action in the novel. Mistry also shows a wonderful understanding of the way the community in the area ticks and this is made even more interesting by Nikki’s dual heritage and the effect this has on her attempts to fit in and keep the community safe.

Last Request is not a book you should read whilst eating breakfast, and I learnt this the hard way! However, the gory moments do create a lot of tension which left me hanging by a thread to my seat. The tension is increased by the chapters narrated by the killer and I was desperate to find out who the twisted perpetrator was! I was completely taken by surprise by the ending.

Last Request is available from Amazon.