Despite this being the first that I have read in this series, I enjoyed this police procedural which is set on a housing estate in the Liverpool suburbs. Our leading man is DI Jordan Carr who has recently left the serious crimes division and is back policing the local area. The story begins with a woman who reports a break-in. There's nothing unusual about that until she is brutally murdered some days later. Unfortunately, the local residents aren’t keen to speak to the police but is this because they are hiding something, or are they just suspicious? Carr is tenacious and using bis extensive investigative abilities seeks to find out the truth as to what has transpired. This involves facing racist abuse and travelling to Blackpool to get justice for the victim.

This was a great read and was well plotted to keep the reader intrigued until the end. I particularly enjoyed the dynamic between DI Carr and his sergeant Stella May. Like a good whodunnit, there were plenty of red herrings and wrong moves before the perpetrator was revealed. I would recommend this book if you enjoy a crime read.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Book Folks for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

This murder mystery follows Detective Inspector Jordan Carr and Detective Sergeant Stella May as they investigate a home breakin, and then the case escalates when she later turns up dead. What first appears to be a routine break-in gone wrong develops into a complex case with multiple victims.
Voodoo dolls at the scene of crime and a missing laptop add an interesting twist to the plot. New evidence is constantly introduced, shifting the focus from one suspect to another.
The book is characterized as a steadily-paced police procedural with realistic characters and plot points.
Definitely recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of the book for my unbiased review.

Body on the Estate by Diane M Dickson is the story of Detective Inspector Jordan Carr and Detective Sergeant Stella May are investigating a break in that becomes a murder that then becomes a multiple murder in Liverpool. The victim, Julie Scott, lived alone on an estate where the neighbours are generally not well-disposed to helping with police inquiries. Needless to say DI Carr’s superior officer wants the case resolved quickly so that his superiors are happy. The case quickly becomes complex as Julie is found to have been an employee of a large financial firm and friends with a temp. secretary at the same firm. When they return from Spain, Julie finds her house has been broken into and trashed.

After the break-in becomes a murder investigation Carr and May find voodoo dolls in the house and their inquiries reveal that Julie has an ex-husband, a son who passed through the foster care system, and a missing laptop. And then the local computer repair person is attacked in his home.

The investigation pivots from suspect to suspect, but lacks evidence but in the end dogged police work solves the case.

The characters, police and public, are well-developed and they related well to each other, with a feeling of reality. The plot/police investigation ticks along with sufficient clues for the reader to reach at least a possible solution.

Highly recommended.

6th in the series but first for me. Good story, well written and believable characters. Carr and May make a good team and Carr has a supportive home life. I'll go back and read earlier stories. This one seems to be a read alone one; good easy read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Great gripping story with a thrilling plot and characters, highly recommend to others and will be reading more by this author for sure.

This is #6 in the DI Jordan Carr series but can easily be read as a standalone. It was so good that I’m now going to read the previous five in the series.

DI Jordan’s first case on returning to the Liverpool suburbs is a break-in where the would-be burglar is disturbed by the homeowner, Julie, returning from a holiday with her friend. Some strange, voodoo-type dolls are found in her home and she’s really spooked as she has no idea what it’s all about. Then, a few days later, Julie’s brutally murdered body is found.

A strong storyline and characters kept me gripped.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Book Folks for an advance reader copy in return for an honest review.

New author for me and I found it a good enough read to make me add the name to my ever growing list.

A great read. I didn’t realise it was part of a series until after reading the book, I feel this book is a great stand alone. The characters were portrayed in all the right ways, especially Jordan.

Synopsis: Body on the Estate is the sixth book in the DI Jordan Carr series by Diane Dickson. When Julie Scott returns home from vacation, she finds an intruder in her house vandalising her personal property. She runs the intruder off but is shaken by the experience and contacts the police. When the police go through the house looking for finger-prints and evidence, they discover “voodoo like” dolls that Julie had never seen before. Between the break-in and the dolls, Julie is rattled and is having a hard time coping. A few days later, Julie’s body is found in her home and DI Jordan Carr and his colleague, DS Stella May get to work trying to get to the truth of why Julie was targeted.

My thoughts: I have not read the previous five books in the series but this is a rare series that I didn’t feel like I was missing information about the characters and I found this book also works as a stand alone. What first attracted me to this mystery is that it is set in Liverpool and on the first page of the book, there is a reference made to Jordan being at a shopping mall called Liverpool One. At the time I read this book, I had just nicely returned from vacation in the UK and had visited Liverpool and shopped at Liverpool One so I immediately felt connected to the story. Its easy to tell that Jordan Carr is respected by his colleagues and is a good cop, husband and father. I thought the author showed a realistic view of racism (Jordan is black) and while Jordan never made a big issue of it, even when it was so overt, I liked that he always got the racist back in the end but he always did it in a way that didn’t diminish him. I gave this book 4 stars/5 and enjoyed it enough that I will most likely go back and read the previous books in the series.

The Body on the Estate is available for purchase now. I thank Netgalley and The Book Folks for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. FYI – these books are available for free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.

This is a very good crime mystery, set in Liverpool. The characters are believable, I really liked Jordan, the plotting is interesting and there was plenty of pace to the story. The ending was neatly tied up and It was a quick, easy read. perfect for summer reading. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.