Severn House Publishers and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of A Little Death. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

A Little Death is the third book in the mystery series surrounding Dr. Kate Hanson and the Birmingham Unsolved Crime Unit. The author does a good job of getting readers up to speed, so it is not strictly necessary to have read the previous novels.

As I was preparing to write this review, I was struck by the number of comments regarding the classification of the central case in this novel as a cold case. Any case can become a cold case if there is no outstanding leads, witnesses, or evidence. Although cold cases that are years and decades old are more sensational, the body found of missing 19-year-old student Elizabeth Williams brought her mysterious disappearance back to the forefront of the investigative team.

The investigative process can be exhaustingly slow in real life, so it is not unexpected that the book gets bogged down at times. The repetitive nature of the detecting, coupled with the slow pace of the novel, takes away from what should have been a thrilling read. In an effort to show how smart Kate is, the author spends too much time having her explain the mind of a killer. I wanted to be surprised, to follow the investigation from its inception from the edge of my seat, but A Little Death did not do this for me. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend the novel to other readers.

This is a forensic cold case mystery, featuring Dr. Kate Hanson and her colleagues. They all comprise the Unsolved Crime Unit.

When remains are found in a field near her college, she is identified as Elizabeth Williams. She's been missing for a year. There are no clues, no witnesses; the medical examiner cannot even say how she died.

When the team starts re-interviewing friends and acquaintances, their suspect list is rather small, but they still have nowhere to turn for clues. One suspect's wife is murdered .. and another young woman escapes the clutches of a man who tried to abduct her. Kate thinks these cases are all connected... and she thinks the killer is far from finishing.

I really enjoy the forensics aspects of this series. (I've read book 4 previously, but not books 1 or 2). Although 3rd in the series, this can easily be read as a stand alone. As always though, I highly recommending the books in order.

This is a well-written mystery, with stand out characters. I like how the people who make up the Crime Unit interact with each other. At times it is like watching siblings talk about the case and what it means and who did it. But at the end of the day, they pull together. I'm definitely going back to read the first two books of this most interesting series.

Many thanks to the author / Severn House / Netgalley for the digital copy. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This was the third book in the Dr Kate Hanson series, but the first I've read, and I will have to go back to fix that now. A young girl's body is found in a field. A year after she disappeared. The investigation of the girl's death is interesting and the forensic information given just enough not to make me feel stupid LOL. It was a well written book and I look forward to more about Dr Kate.

This is just the type of book I like, a whodunnit with plenty of suspects. Loved the main characters and will definitely be reading more from this author. Intelligently written and plotted, I had no idea who or why until the writer unraveled the mystery. Read in one sitting, couldn't put it down.

A Dr Kate Hanson cold case.

Elizabeth Williams has been missing for a year and is a cold case. Now a body is discovered in a shallow grave in a field just outside Birmingham and dental records confirmed it to be hers. But without knowing where Elizabeth was killed and no cause of death due to the state of the body, solving the crime will not be easy. The only thing they have is trace evidence; fibres under her fingernails.

Detective Sergeant Bernard Watts, Lieutenant Joe Corrigan and Dr Kate Hanson, Forensic Psychologist, University of Birmingham working with the UCU (Unsolved Crime Unit) work the case with the help of Julian Devenish, Hanson’s PhD student. They have various ‘persons of interest’ in their sights but no real leads. Then a woman is attacked on a lonely road and there appear to be similarities between the cases. Amy Bennet survives the attack and provides vital clues to the investigation, if you know where to look.

Hanson knows why killers do what they do; it’s her job. Can she figure out how and why this killer does what he does? Is it Laurence Vickers, the college professor with whom Elizabeth had her last tutorial? A married sex pest who likes them young. Or is it Aiden Malahide or Hugh Downey - partners in an environmental building company where Elizabeth may have wanted an internship? Or could it possibly be Chris Turner, the controlling boyfriend? Dr Hanson has her work cut out for her to solve this one!

A good read with solid investigative techniques. The book shows you that detective work is not as glamorous as portrayed by many TV series and actually involves boringly going over and over the evidence that you have trying to discover new insights into things that have happened or been said.

Saphira

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley and Severn House. Thank you.

There are several previous novels in this series to feature Dr. Kate Hanson, a Forensic Psychologist with the UCU (Unsolved Crimes Unit) in Birmingham, England. I had not read any of the previous novels and had no problems beginning the series with this novel. I'm especially interested in reading mystery novels where the motive of a killer is explored and in this story Dr. Hanson plays a very large role in working the cold case. A body has been discovered buried in a shallow grave on the edge of a field and machinery is set in motion to identify the body. Once the identification is made the problem becomes very complicated since a cause of death cannot be established by the coroner. How can the team find out what happened to this victim if they don't even know how she died? All the resources of the cold cases team will be called into play to make headway on this one.

This case is obviously set in modern times, but I couldn't get any firm grasp on exactly what year the death occurred. I prefer to have some inkling of a date for a story so I can judge it fairly regarding the use of technology in solving the crime. Since there was no date I just had to mentally place it in this year and that all by itself caused me some problems. First, the initial investigation of the disappearance of this person must have been a very shoddy affair. There were multiple pieces of evidence which were never examined for forensic evidence and even the UCU didn't attempt to use that evidence until almost the end of the story. Why not? There was trace evidence found on the skeletal remains and yet, once again from a forensic standpoint, only the most cursory investigation went into identifying this evidence. In short, this investigation was totally unsatisfactory if you are a dedicated reader of mystery novels involving modern forensic evidence techniques.

Other aspects of the book which kept me from enjoying it very much have to do with the main character, Dr. Kate Hanson. She divides her time between her family life with her thirteen year old daughter, lecturing at a university, and working as a forensic psychologist for the UCU (which, by the way, my brain continued to see as ICU throughout the book!) along with the other members of the team. Dr. Hanson's ruminations on what the psychological reasoning behind the motive of the killer might be seemed to go on forever. I was reading this book on an e-reader device and I kept looking at the percentage read and wondering how many pages there were in the book. I would have guessed at over 400. The page count is 252. The story simply moved at a snail's pace for me. It was also annoying that the author referred to this main character as Hanson throughout the book instead of Kate or Dr. Hanson. I was pulled out of the narrative time and time again to remember who Hanson was. It is often the small things which combine to reduce my enjoyment of a novel. This one just had too many negative aspects to it for me.

A Little Death by A J Cross

Although this is my introduction to Dr Kate Hanson of the Unsolved Crime Unit in Birmingham, it is in fact the third in the series.

Following the discovery of a badly decomposed body in a field, Hansen, together with her team, soon identify the body as 19 year old student Elizabeth Williams who disappeared a year ago. With a distinct lack of forensic information from the victim and the site the team are reliant on witness information to progress the investigation – witnesses that are unreliable or not forthcoming, all the more frustrating due to the lack of manpower to investigate.

The team are then forced to interview and re-interview people that knew the victim or perhaps saw or heard something that will carry the investigation forward. This then is a police procedural and this is brought home by the constant re-interviewing of witnesses, and the doggedness required in reviewing and revisiting statements and facts. Much of this is done through the inner-voice of Hanson.

Was the dénouement a surprise? Perhaps not but I didn’t feel the lack for that as I was intrigued enough in the well-constructed plot. Overall I felt satisfied with this well-written novel, and engaged enough with the characters to enjoy the book.

If you like police procedurals, this is for you.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

Elizabeth Williams was 19 when she disappeared. Her decaying body is found a year later, buried in a field. I’m not really sure that this qualifies it as a cold case, but maybe I am just splitting hairs?
It’s not clear why she died, or what the motive was for this killing – but it is later determined that her body had been moved.
This is the third Kate Hanson book which considers in interesting detail the importance of input from this forensic psychologist to the Birmingham Unsolved Crime Unit.
There is a plethora of suspects and those grow ever wider as the case grows with a violent attack on a second woman but then stalls for lack of motive or any clear description of the attacker.
Suspects are questioned and cross questioned time and again, with many unsavoury moments displayed by the suspects, but the lack of concrete evidence leaves the team frustrated and anxious.
Meanwhile, Kate is steeling herself to break some family news to her daughter, Maisie and is set on a course of no romantic entanglements for the foreseeable – a step she thinks will help to keep her emotionally safe.
This is a pretty straightforward police procedural, peppered with red herrings to keep you guessing and with a motive that is not uncovered until near the end of the book.
It is an enjoyable read, though it slightly dips in the middle.

This was the first book in this series that I had read and I will be getting my hands on the first two as soon as I can.
The story centres around Dr. Kate Hanson and the Unsolved Crime Unit. They are assigned to investigate the year old disappearance of student Elizabeth Williams whose body turns up in a shallow grave. They have several persons of interest and not much actual evidence to go on. The book moved along very quickly and you're constantly trying to figure it out before they do!!! This is a brilliantly written book. The characters are very believable and you warm to the members of the team and enjoy their interactions.
This was a book I couldn't put down from page 1. Highly reccomend!!!!!

Once again A J Cross has given readers an excellent mystery with many surprising twists.  Dr Kate Hanson is a forensic psychologist with the Unsolved Crime Unit.  When the body of a young woman who had gone missing the year before is discovered, badly decomposed, in a shallow grave, Hanson and her team are given the case.  Physical cues to manner of death are few, as are reliable witnesses.  The witness who has the most to offer, a disabled man known to be a fantasist, would not do well in court.  Unless Kate and the others can figure out the how and the why, a dangerous man may claim yet another victim.

A J Cross does a great job making Kate Hanson and the other officers real and believable.  They are individuals, not cardboard cutouts.  Both the characters and the story easily fall into the realm of the possible, making it easy for readers to suspend their disbelief.

If you enjoy British police procedurals and are looking for something slightly different from the normal fare, A Little Death is an excellent choice.  

5 / 5

I received a copy of A Little Death from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

--Crittermom

Book grabbed me from the very first page. You have any questions while reading which are all answered. The twists you don't see coming until they hit you in the face. Kept me up till late at night.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to review this book. This is the third book in the series and I shall certainly be ordering some more to learn about the brilliant forensic psychologist Dr Kate Hanson. This book reminded me of the earlier Patricia Cornwell books

A Good Read But With A Few Problems
A Little Death is the third novel in A. J. Cross’s Dr. Kate Hanson Cold Case series. This novel starts with the discovery of a body of a young woman that is identified as Elizabeth Williams who was a student of the nearby Williams’s College that disappeared a year earlier. The heroine is Dr. Kate Hanson who teaches at Birmingham University and works for the local police in the Unsolved Crime Unit (UCU) as a forensic psychologist. Quickly, the list of potential suspects range from Williams’ tutor, her boyfriend, an acquaintance who left to play soccer in the United States the same weekend on which she was killed, and a man discovered at the crime scene after the body was found who had a strange background. The investigation starts over verifying the original investigation that had gone cold.
The main story line proceeds steadily from this point but with all the twists and turns as more information is gathered. Trying to work out the victim’s timeline during her last few days leads to several potential suspects. Each one comes under scrutiny but each one seems to fit and not fit. This storyline captured my attention; I just had to keep reading to find out who had committed the crime.
The B-story also was rich. The reader has Dr. Kate Hanson interacting with her thirteen year old daughter, Maisie, Hanson’s estranged father, the police detective, Bernard Watts, with whom Kate works and a love interest, American, Lieutenant Joe Corrigan, from Boston on assignment to the UCU, the rest of the UCU team and a new supervisor of the UCU who wants to make his mark. Even though this is the third novel in this series, I did not feel hindered with following the B-story because I had not read the previous two novels.
The author makes good use of Dr. Hanson’s university teaching job as the author uses the classroom opportunity to explain some important investigative techniques that are important to the reader’s understanding of the main storyline. Also, there are some aspects that rubbed me the wrong way. During one interview with one potential suspect who acted in a too classic misogynistic manner with a previous girlfriend, she blew up and started telling him off that she knew his misogynistic ways. Now, in the current state of American politics and social media, telling people off seems to be a very popular behavior. While emotionally satisfying, it is very unprofessional and sets her up for her prejudice to be exposed at trial and very likely sink any prosecutor’s efforts as the investigation appears to be prematurely focused on the defendant and did not properly investigate other potential suspects.
…..Overall, it was an engaging read that kept my interest with many interesting characters, but with the issue I described above, I could only rate this novel with four stars.
I have received a free kindle version of this novel through NetGalley from Severn House with a request for an honest, unbiased review. I wish to thank Severn House for the opportunity to read this novel early.

Very enjoyable read. Lots of mystery and forsensics!

A.J.Cross obviously knows what she's writing about. This crime novel seems to describe acurately the work of a forensic psychologist. The repeated steps and the repeated discussions about what they've got so far (and it's not much) might seem boring, but it shows how such a case should be evaluated.
As a psychologist Cross is able to give her characters psychological depth.
It's a book for those who ant to read how such cases are solved and who like to guess who did it, it's not for those who want to be thrilled by suspense.

4 stars

I was confused as to why this case was assigned to the cold case unit. After all, the body was found after just a year. That aside, it is a well written book. I liked Kate and the cops were an effective team.

Dr. Kate Hanson a forensic psychologist and partner DS Bernard Watts of the Unsolved Crime Unit located in Birmingham, England get a call out to a crime scene. A young murdered woman has been found after being buried for over a year.

The team sets about interviewing suspects and searching for clues as to why the young woman was murdered. Slowly, they build up evidence and then Kate has an epiphany. They bring the case to a conclusion.

Nicely done. Thanking Netgalley and Severn House/Severn House Publishers for forwarding to me a copy of this book to read.

Dr Kate Hanson and the Unsolved Crime Unit are faced with solving the Year old
disappearance of Elizabeth Williams when her decomposed body is discovered in a field.
Along with this they have an attack on a pregnant woman who managed to escape. Determined to bring justice for Elizabeth, and due to lack of evidence, she looks to motivation and reasoning of the killer.
The plot flowed along at a steady pace and the story was filled with suspense.
All the characters were realistic and played an important role to the story.
The interaction of the team, each one with their own view, was brilliantly executed.
I found this book riveting, suspenseful and very well written. I highly recommend
it to others.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of A Little Death, the third novel in the series about forensic psychologist Dr Kate Hanson and the Birmingham Unsolved Crime Unit.

When a decaying body is found buried in a field the UCU is called in. She is soon identified as 19 year old student Elizabeth Williams who disappeared a year earlier. With no obvious cause of death the team have their work cut out to find a motive and the killer.

A Little Death is a straightforward police procedural as there is no subplot except Kate Hanson's rather complicated home life. The investigation itself is far from straightforward with several suspects and no real evidence to give the team a steer in the right direction. It gets a bit repetitive as they keep interviewing the same suspects about the same things until the end when Kate has a breakthrough in her thinking and identifies the culprit, which I had already done. I assume that the constant interviewing of "persons of interest" is how real life investigations are carried out but it makes for boring reading.

I don't understand either why a freshly uncovered murder would go to the cold case unit or why, given the victim's high profile, there are only 1 full time and 3 part time investigators on the case.

A Little Death is a solid police procedural with a good premise.

Elizabeth Williams has been missing for a year when her body is found in a field near the college she attended. Forensic specialist Dr. Kate Hanson is in charge of finding out how the girl died and looking for any clues that will help the police catch her killer. But a year after death, the body is so badly decomposed, it’s almost impossible for Kate to find any forensic evidence that will be helpful to authorities, so Kate will have to find another way. She begins to form a psychological profile of the killer by learning all she can about the victim and the manner of her death, because Kate is sure this killer will not stop at one body. Tense and exciting, this is for fans of early Patricia Cornwell