Murder Ring by Leigh Russell

Murder Ring

By Leigh Russell 

This is another great outing for the compelling DI Geraldine Steel. When a dead body is discovered in a dark side street, Geraldine finds herself caught up in another murder investigation. When this is followed by another mysterious murder, the investigation becomes ever more complicated.

As with all the Geraldine Steel books we get a good mix of insights into Geraldine’s working life and interaction with her colleagues, the often messy lives of the perpetrators and victims of crime, and a glimpse into Geraldine’s personal life.

In this book, the working team is shaken up by a new arrival in the shape of DCI Adam Eastwood. Good looking and determined to get results, he certainly changes the dynamics of Geraldine’s working life.

We also have the familiar Sam – Geraldine’s sergeant and sometimes confidante. But this time there is an edge between the two women as they disagree about gun crime, and Geraldine finds her own personal problems too much to deal with.

One of the things that I think makes the Geraldine Steel crime series so successful is that as time has gone on Leigh Russell has made enough changes to Geraldine's circumstances and the people around her to keep it fresh and different, whilst keeping enough factors the same to give a sense of continuity and familiarity to the series.

This book sees some huge events in Geraldine’s private life, I won’t say too much as I don’t want to give anything away, but a storyline that has been running through the whole series has some major developments. These glimpses into Geraldine’s family life are one of the things that make this series special, in my view, and make Geraldine a very rounded and human character.

The plot is satisfying, with plenty going on, and the ‘murder ring’ at the centre gives it a sense of intrigue as we follow its progress.

To get the full Geraldine Steel experience I recommend you read all the books. You can find my reviews of earlier books in the series (and the accompanying Ian Peterson series) here and here.

But this is a great murder mystery in its own right and highly recommended if you want an introduction to Leigh Russell’s work.

 Overall, a very enjoyable and well written story.

Thanks very much to the publishers for a review copy of this book.

You can find out more here.

This post is part of a blog tour for Murder Ring, and you can find the other stops on the tour here.