A killer with a grudge and a taste for punishment, a detective with a secret and a girl searching for a missing sibling all intertwine to make 'Next Victim', an absorbing murder mystery.

Detective Chief Inspector Rachel King is good at her job but is this at the expense of her family life? A particularly grisly murder takes all her concentration, but someone from her past could damage everything. Rachel is a complex, realistic character. She's flawed and dedicated to her job. Her ex-husband seems to want to be more than the father to her kids, but she has a secret she cannot share.

This is a well-written murder mystery/police procedural. All the characters are authentic and vividly portrayed and the crimes though terrible are not too graphic. The fast- pacing keeps the reader's interest and this promises to be the start of a good series as Rachel's past collides with her present

I received a copy of this book from Joffe Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Loved it loved it loved it. I love all of Helens work, and Vallad8ne and Baylis are two of my favourite detectives. But I think Rachel and Eleanor are going to give them a run for their money. Excellent novel and thriller, to the standard we expect of Helens books and I hope she writes some more for the,

This is the first in a new series by Helen Durrant and I just loved it.
Next Victim was just brilliant book and a great start to the new Detective Rachel King series,
I was hooked from the first few pages. Everything that Helen writes, is in so much detail and you just become a part of the book.

You meet Detective Rachel King when she is put in charge of a brutal murder of a young attractive blonde man who was found tortured and burnt by Manchester's Canal. Another young attractive blonde man has been found murdered.

Have they been murdered by the same Killer who has a taste for attractive young blonde men?

You will find out more about Detective Rachel King, she is thirty-nine, divorced to Alan who lives next door to her and a mother of two teenage daughters. You will learn that she has a big secret, the love of her life is a well-known villain and he has recently got in contact with her and wants answers!

A Student called Alice believes she has a twin brother but disappeared with their mother when they were younger. She has a lot of questions for her father who tells her she is imaging it and she did not have a twin brother.
She is connected to the first murdered victim.

As the murders continue, Rachel needs to keep her family together especially her secret that needs to stay as a secret!
She needs to stop the killer before they murder someone else?

Just Brilliant......Looking forward to read more about Detective Rachel King and more in this series.

Thank you Joffe Books for this ARC copy of the first book about DCI Rachel King,

This is a new series from the established crime writer, Helen Durrant, featuring DCI Rachel King of Greater Manchester Police. Rachel is a 39 year old divorced mother of two teenage daughters, Meg and Mia. A body of a young man is recovered from the Manchester Canal, horrifically beaten up and burnt. Rachel and her police team investigate this troubling case as further murders take place. Taking a huge chunk of the story is Rachel's messy and complicated personal life, her ill advised past relationship with a big criminal gangster which returns with a bang into the present. With a manipulative serial killer on the loose, Rachel is tested to her limits in this fast paced crime novel which does, I feel, require a huge suspension of disbelief. Nevertheless, an entertaining read. Many thanks to Joffe Books for an ARC.

Next Victim is the first novel in the new DCI Rachel King series by bestselling author Helen Durrant, based around the goings-on in the Greater Manchester Police Force. I often get over excited about beginning a brand spanking new series, but you never really know what you are going to get. Here, unfortunately, the balance between the plot and characters is all wrong. I know that the first book of a new series has to introduce the characters and let the reader learn about them then hopefully warm to them. In Next Victim, however, the real plot is overshadowed by Rachel's personal life and her indiscretions. There's certainly too much focus on her at the destruction of the story.

Rachel's secret boyfriend, who's kept from most peoples attention, is a notorious part of the criminal fraternity in the Manchester area and seems to be a very odd choice for a strong, astute and ambitious woman such as Rachel. This beggars belief but maybe it's true that you can't help who you fall in love with. As for Rachel as a character, I'm not sure whether she'll grow on me or not; the next instalment should put that to bed once and for all either way, so I will pick it up but primarily due to the promising writing that pulls you into the story as always with Ms Durrant. The pace is steady throughout and the conclusion offered up a big surprise and was cleverly done. I hope I gain more from book number two.

Many thanks to Joffe Books for an ARC.

#next Victim#Netgalley

Wow, I read this in one go, it’s gripping well written by one of my favourite authors. Helen Durrant you have done it again. Knocked out another superb book, I hope you will be definitely turning this one into a series. With Rachael’s secret, it’s absolutely amazing, aswome, brilliant read, each book you write I genuinely think you can’t get better, yet somehow you do if you have never read a Hellen Durrant book you are really really missing out. YOU MUST DEFINITELY READ HER BOOKS. Bloody awesome book

3.5 stars

Next Victim by Helen H Durrant is the first in the Detective Rachel King series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Joffe Books, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Series Background:  (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)
DCI Rachel King is with the serious crime squad for east Manchester. Her team consists of: DS Elwyn Pryce, her long-time colleague and friend; DC Jonny Farrell, the newest member of the team, and still a little green; and DC Amy Metcalfe, who shows potential, but is often careless, and would love to dig up dirt on her boss. Rachel went through a somewhat amicable divorce and her husband bought the house next door in order to help raise their two teenage daughters. Although Rachel knows she cannot have a relationship with Jed McAteer, due to his criminal background, it doesn’t mean she can ignore her first love. She just has to make sure no one finds out she even knows him.

My Synopsis:
When the tortured body of a gay man shows up in the canal, the trail leads to a nearby warehouse run by Paul Greyson. There is video showing the young man arguing with Greyson, even though he denies knowing him.

As the bodies pile up, the killer is leaving the police a false trail to follow. He has one target in mind, and the others are just practice, and fodder for the police.

Enter Jed McAteer, front and center, and Rachel fears he may be involved in this case. She also fears her secret may be exposed, and her career over.

Meanwhile, it turns out the girl down the street from Rachel knew the first victim, and was seen attacking him with a knife. She has some issues that Rachel plans to check out.

As if she isn’t having enough problems at work, her daughters are acting like 5 year olds. Mind you, she’s rarely home, and that could be the reason. But things are about to take a turn for the worse.

My Opinions:
For the first in the series, it shows promise. Of course this is not the only series by this author, so she has had some practice. However, this is the first of her books that I have read, and she’s now on my to-read list.

It was a fast-paced read, so it didn’t take long to finish. I liked getting the story from different perspectives, including that of the killer. I also liked most of the characters, and hope they are fleshed out a little more in future books. I am still not sure about Rachel. I think her parenting skills suck, and her secrets are harming everyone. For 39, in a responsible position, you’d think she should have it more together.

I did guess the killer and motive too soon, so was rather disappointed in that. I guess I expected more from this talented author.

There was an interesting appendix at the back of the book showing a list of British slang.

Overall, it was only an okay read, but it was intriguing enough that I really want to see what happens next.

This was an okay crime thriller, it kept me engrossed enough to read it in 2 sittings, and I was keen to see how it would end.
I put that down mostly to the good writing, and not to the storyline, which was a little reminiscent of many police drama’s you could find yourself watching on an Autumnal Sunday night on ITV.
Essentially I wasn’t sure if I liked or disliked the main character, and therefore it remains to be seen if I will read the forthcoming new books in the series.
A worthy 3 stars but not a riveting read.

The Next Victim. Helen H. Durrant.


DCI Rachel King has a problem, she once had a fling with a man that would turn out to be one of the gangsters that runs Manchester. In fact, the fling is still a bit of a dirty secret as she still harbours feelings for him.

That itself is a problem. An even bigger problem is that his name has come up as a suspect in a murder investigation.

The first body to turn up is that of a gay man who has suffered a horrific death after apparently being tortured.

When King and her team start the investigations they follow the evidence that is left at the scene, but is it reliable or is somebody playing them.

When a second body is found it looks like it is linked to the first by location, but there is a totally different manner of death.

When a third body is found, in similar circumstances as the first, the team begin to think that the second body wasn’t connected after all, but are they right.

This is a complex story weaving numerous plot lines together in a way that the reader is left in no doubt as the difficulties facing the investigation team.

At the same time the reader follows the struggle in Kings personal life. Divorced from her husband, who now lives next door, and bringing up two teenage daughters, she has her dirty secret to consider during the investigation.

Does she tell her team, and her family, about the tryst with the gangster. Where will it leave her professionally, and what will it do to her family life.

I liked this book. The crime plot is original and compelling, but what really makes the story is the issues that surround King and her secret fling.

Pages: 195
Publishers: Joffe
Available now on Amazon

A great story line with brilliant main characters.. I read this book in one sitting as I couldn't put it down.

An interesting story line involving family intrigue. As the story unfolds the family involvement continues as do the murders leading to a very surprising finale.

This is the first in a new series by Helen Durrant. The main character is DCI Rachel King whose family life and working life are hectic to say the least. So when a body turns up in the Manchester Canal badly beaten and burned it falls to her team to try to solve the murder. Life gets even more difficult for Rachel when an ex boyfriend turns up asking questions she doesn't want to answer.
A very enjoyable book and after laying the groundwork for the next in the series I am looking forward to reading the next one.

Rachel King is a working mother of two argumentative teenagers and now her ex-husband has annoyingly bought the house next door and wants to connect the homes. What she really doesn’t need is complications in her working life as a DCI in the Manchester police force. Which is precisely what she gets in her new case, that of the murder of a young man who has been viciously attacked, half burnt and then had his throat cut before being dumped in the canal by some waste ground. Rachel and her small team of one DS and 2 DCs start to uncover motives, particularly from Alice, a university friend of her older daughter, who had fallen out with the deceased over her obsession into finding her missing mother and twin brother both of whom’s existence is strangely and consistently denied by her father. Also in the frame is the owner of a nearby factory who had a run in with the young man. Drag in Rachel’s past love affair with local crime baron Jed McAteer and we have all the tangled threads of a good detective story waiting to be unravelled. The author keeps up the pace and makes the reader privy to some of the killer’s thoughts and motives as more murders occur and things take a nasty turn for the DCI. Well written with a satisfying (if not too hard to work out) conclusion. I hope this is the start of another series for this author.

This is the second time this year (which is a shame as this is only my 7th book of 2019) that I have started a new series that has left me feeling like I've been missing out on a huge back story.

Rachel King as stated in the synopsis is divorced, and has a criminal ex. Pretty straight forward to start, but once you get into the story you realize there is simply too much about her life that you don't know. And with the way this story was laid out overall, what you don't know actually hurts your enjoyment (for myself at least).

Let's begin with Alan and Rachel shall we? They were married and had two children together. Somewhere along the way, they end up getting divorced. It is never explained in this story just what happens to their marriage, but apparently they are still amicable. To the point her ex-husband bought the house next door to her and is currently making plans to install a sort of connection between the two houses. Which leads me to wonder just WHY he felt this sort of thing was acceptable? Usually exes no matter how civil don't end up living next door to one another and they certainly don't build additions to their homes to connect them. They divorced for a reason.

Then you have Rachel's ex. This budding villain she dated in her teens. During the time from then until now, he has become something of a "crime baron". A well known crime boss, or something, its never really explained what he does, just that he's a bad guy and everyone knows his name. Again, we get no real backstory on him, on his rise to power in the criminal underworld, nor do we get any real information on his relationship with Rachel, other than he still very much wants to be a part of her life. Whether she likes it or not.

Once you get past all of the things you don't know or understand about the players in this game, you can start to focus on the story. As I have come to expect from this author having read prior series' of hers, the story itself moves at a steady pace. There are several characters that flow well together, each bringing a different flavor to the story, and I enjoyed the way the author was able to weave Rachel's' two daughters into the story making them more than just a note in the background. While I admit that I did not expect the ending, I also found it to be a bit .... unbelievable as well. How did no one see the truth? Or at least suspect something was off about the person? I also found it to be a bit weird that Rachel's daughter Mia didn't recognize him due to some prior information that had been revealed. I would have thought she would have at least had some idea of who he was.

Overall, I would definitely read more from this author, and I will continue on to the next book in this series if only to see what happens now that the cat has started to wiggle its way out of the bag.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

Next Victim by Helen H. Durant
Detective Rachel King #1

A serial killer is on the loose and DCI Rachel King is put in charge of finding the perpetrator. Brutal murders of young attractive blond men is taking place and finding out who and why is at the center of this book. Rachel is not a character I found easy to like. She puts work before marriage and children and though she cares about her teenage daughters her main focus is her job. Some of her secrets come out as the story unfolds but I still don’t understand her...maybe as the series progresses the reader will be let in more or she will become a warmer person. Her team is mentioned but not a great deal is said about them as individuals. Again...first book in a new series so more will unfold over time.

The mystery was well plotted but for some reason it did not grab me as some in the genre do and I am not sure why. I wrote down that I felt the story was being told to me rather than having the feeling I was immersed in the story and able to be in the shoes of Rachel...or any of the other characters in the book.

Did I enjoy this book? Kind of – it was okay and I did want to find out who and why
Would I read more in the series? I think so...to see if I can relate better to the characters than I did in this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Joffe Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3-4 Stars

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for a review copy of Next Victim, the first novel to feature DCI Rachel King of GMP.

Rachel and the team investigate an incipient serial killer when the mutilated body of a young man is found in a canal near some waste ground. The investigation is hampered by Rachel’s secrets.

Next Victim is a solid read but it failed to capture or retain my attention for several reasons. The novel is told from two perspectives, that of Rachel and her team and that of the killer. I don’t like the switching from one voice to another as it tends to destroy my concentration but must admit that initially the voice of the killer is intriguing because it sticks to his actions and gives little hint of motive. I also like the connections between the characters which become apparent as the novel progresses. I think it is cleverly done.

I think the murder plot is fairly slim as it’s not really the focus of the novel. The author has preferred to concentrate on Rachel’s personal life and her secret former boyfriend, secret because he’s one of Manchester’s biggest criminals. I found the whole scenario extremely unlikely and her actions resulting from it unbefitting to the smart woman she must be to become a DCI. “Love of her life” doesn’t cut it for me to justify her actions over the years. As you can guess I found her annoying.

Next Victim is a solid read.

4 stars

DCI Rachel King lives in a highly dysfunctional family. Her two teenage daughters bicker all the time and she lives next door to her ex-husband who wants to join their two houses. Oh boy… She also has an ex-boyfriend, who wants to get reacquainted, but he is a major crime boss and she knows she’d be in deep trouble at work if such a relationship came out. She loves him however. What to do?

She gets a call to a dead body. The young man has been horribly tortured and murdered. There is no identification on him but patients police work leads to his identity as a college student studying journalism. According to his friends, he was on to a big story and also doing a story about the homeless. He was living rough for the time being and also mooching off his friends for room and board.

As the investigation proceeds, Rachel’s team learns that a friend of one of Rachel’s daughter’s friend Alice was also involved with the dead man. Alice has suffered for years from a possible delusion that she is one of a set of twins, but her brother named Alfie and her mother disappeared when she was a small child. Her father flatly denies the existence of any Alfie.

There are several plot lines going on in this book at once. The reader must keep on turning pages to discover if Ms. Durrant can pull them all together. This is a well written and plotted book. It reads pretty quickly and smoothly. One event follows another in a logical manner. I have read many of Ms. Durrant’s novels and this one rates up there with the rest. I am looking forward to the next in this series.

I want to thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this good book for me to read, enjoy and review.

My only complaint is that this book was too short!

This can be continued on well as a series as there were some unanswered questions towards the end.
I'm looking forward to watching the characters grow and develop.

I read this book in one sitting, it's a nice well paced read with relatively short chapters. I feel the best is yet to come

DCI Rachel King #1

A young man's body has been found burnt and tortured by one of Manchester's canals. DCI Rachel King has two teenage daughters and is divorced. She is called in to investigate the young man's murder. She also has a secret that she is hiding from her past that could badly affect her career.

This is the first book in a new series by the author Helen H. Durrant and if this first book is anything to go by, boy, this is going to be a great series. The pace is good with lots of secrets and stuff going on to keep the reader interested. A well written and thought out police procedural.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Joffe Books and the author Helen H. Durrant for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.
This was a mildly enjoyable read, but a bit of a cliche.
DCI Rachel King is investigating the brutal murder of a young man, tortured and burnt to death. She has quite a few personal.oroblems: she's divorced with two difficult daughters and is still in love with her old boyfriend, who just happens to be a crime boss...not something a policewoman wants her co-workers to know about. Unfortunately he might be involved in the murder as well as a second similar one.
I didn't much like her character, nor the rest of her team. The plot was, in my opinion, a bit hard to believe. I don't think I will read the 2nd in this new series. It's a 2.5 star read for me.