Thanks to the team at Hobeck Books for the opportunity to review "Private Investigations": a feverishly suspenseful thriller that I could not put down until I reached the last page.
Author Rob Gittins has written for numerous top-rated network UK TV shows, including Casualty, The Bill, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Stella, Vera, Heartbeat, Soldier Soldier and The Story of Tracy Beaker.
Hobeck published Gittins' "Can I Trust You?" in 2023. For my review of that book, click here.
The first Lara Arden mystery, "I'm Not There" focused on a murder investigation set on the Isle of Wight. The investigation featured DI Lara Arden, whose mother vanished from a crowded train some twenty years previously. In "Private Investigations", this mystery is still unsolved.
Although "Private Investigations" is the second book in this Gittins crime thriller series, it can without question be read as a stand-alone. Gittins skillfully weaves the book's previous events into the story. However, when I joined the Hobeck blog tour, I decided to read "I'm Not There". Reading both books allowed me to better appreciate Gittin's masterful creation of a world in which past and present collide to horrendous effect. Note: This review contains spoilers for "I'm Not There".
Lara Arden is still an officer in the Major Crimes Unit. When her mother disappeared from a train twenty years ago, she and her sister Georgia were left alone. This devastating event hangs over the lives of both daughters; Georgia turned inward and shuns the outside world. Lara became a detective whose life is devoted to solving mysteries. Her "private investigation" is her quest to find out what really happened to her mother (she was also an orphan, as her daughters are now).
Events from "I'm Not There" still haunt the characters in "Private Investigations". In that book, Lara and Georgia found out that they have a stepsister named Esther, named after their mother. Esther is a serial killer who carried out a series of murders to deliberately and cruelly ruin children's lives. Lara, Georgia, and several of her colleagues still bear the mental and physical scars inflicted by the implacably evil Esther. She was never caught. The thought that she is still out there tortures Lara, Georgia and others who lost loved ones to her deranged pursuit of revenge.
"Private Investigations" begins with a mysterious meeting in a nondescript seaside boarding house. Gittins inexorably raises the tension level as the meeting takes a decidedly sinister turn. Later, we find out that the fate of one of the meeting's attendees mirrors the punishments exacted upon children who were sent to a now-closed home for orphans called Kenwood.
Kenwood was a terrifying, sadistic place for Lara and Georgia's mother and the other orphans. The people who worked there were brutal and vicious and the children were forced to suffer in silence with nowhere to turn. And now, it seems that the terrible sufferings of the past are being exacted upon those in the present day.
Initially, Lara gets a call about a pedestrian struck by a van. Confused about why the Major Crime Unit would be called to a traffic scene, she's told "It may not have been an accident". The victim's name is Amy Waite. She was badly injured in the hit-and-run and is lying in the hospital in a coma. Several witnesses reported seeing her acting strangely, wandering aimlessly and then stumbling into the middle of the road. The Major Crimes Unit is called to investigate because of Amy's strange behavior.
I appreciated the way Gittins deftly structures "Private Investigations" around familial groups and their intertwined fates. Primarily, the focus is on Lara, her sister Georgia, their missing mother, and the terrifying Esther. Another family central to the story is the Waites: Amy, her parents, and twin brother Aaron, who is on the spectrum and with whom Amy shares an unusual mental connection. Aaron has a secret he's hiding from everyone: before her accident, Amy gave Aaron something for safekeeping and made him promise never to show it to anyone.
The McGuire family includes Amy's boyfriend Rhys and his father Joseph. Rhys is extremely worried about Amy, which is affecting him in strange ways. He tells a friend that he feels like he's being watched by an unknown entity, and is acting erratically. Then there is the Banks family; Lara's work partner Jordan, whose wife Edie is still in the hospital recovering from Esther's machinations in "I'm Not There", and his daughter, Coco. Coco is friends with Amy and harbors a guilty crush on Rhys. Unbeknownst to Coco, her father, concerned about her behavior, is spying on her, having hidden a listening device in her purse.
Another victim, only described as "the driver of the Range Rover", also attended the sinister meeting at the seaside boarding house from Chapter 1. At his grandson's birthday party, he is hiding dark thoughts about the young boys who are playing in his garden. To escape from his urges, he goes to his garden shed and is struck from behind. The motive behind this murder is not readily apparent to Lara until they find a slim connection between the victim and Kenwood.
Later on, Lara visits Kenwood hoping to uncover clues about her mother. For Lara, all roads lead to this grisly place. As she enters the crumbling structure:
“Now Lara looked out over an open piece of waste ground – a burial site for dozens of small bodies that had finally been removed in the previous year or so.”
When she discovers another body on the grounds, that of a recently buried elderly male, her mind races. Can these two murders be linked not only to Kenwood, but to her mother's disappearance? What really happened on that train, so many years ago? And is Esther still out there, wreaking her revenge?
As Lara and her team race to solve the crimes, the body count rises. Gittins ratchets up the tension and simmering undercurrents to an inspired level. I read with a growing sense of dread and anticipation, hardly able to turn the pages fast enough. This book both frightened and stirred me. It's a testament to Gittins' skill as a writer, combining thriller and mystery to such powerful effect. As the story built to its conclusion, the suspense became unbearable; just what a passionate mystery fan longs for! I can confidently recommend "Private Investigations" to all my fellow fans, and if you can, read "I'm Not There" as well. I hope you enjoy both as much as I did.
Please buy/order "Private Investigations" and "I'm Not There" from your local independent bookstore. Or, go to Bookshop.org and order there.
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