I don’t know how I overlooked a new release by Robert Brynza but alas, it happened! Maybe not enough advertising before the release? I really don’t know but, when I saw his post about his new book having been released and the question that, if you’ve read it to please leave a review I got stoked! I kind of was expecting a new Erika Foster book but that isn’t the case. Robert has just released the first in a whole new series!

This book is called ‘The Quiet Kill’ and is the first novel in the Detective Jamie Day series and takes place in London in the 1980’s.

Jamie Day has been policing in a quiet Seaside town but wanted more. When he was hired for a plain clothes detective position in London he was thrilled! On the day he arrived in London a call about a body found came through and Jamie was the first on scene even though he officially would start the day after. At a station the groundskeeper found a binbag filled with body parts. Arriving on scene and waiting for the senior officer to arrive and the medical examiner.

At only 25 years and as green as can be in this new position it was shocking to see a dismembered body; to see how gruesome some killings could be. That wasn’t the only surprising thing, the medical examiner was clearly intoxicated and smelled like booze but nobody seemed surprised by that. Policing in the 1980’s… getting missing person files faxed to the station from a main department you have to call via a landline. Whereas some detectives wouldn’t have thought to let someone fax the pictures over it was Jamie’s first instinct which resulted in positively IDing the victim within hours.

Getting your own place or a place to stay in general in London in the ‘80s just weeks before Christmas is a nightmare that’s why Jamie looked at rooms for rent and found one in a nearby town, when he arrived at the address he couldn’t believe his eyes and actually thought he did something wrong, maybe misheard the address? In front of him stood a small mansion with a room waiting for him on the third floor.

In London policing is a lot different then that small town where he’s from and because he’s the new one he needs to prove himself. It becomes apparent that the victim was participating in gay activities which is a huge no-no in this time and era. Another body has been found in the freezer by a cleaning lady, the body being that of the owner of the house but also one known to photograph and film orgies, gay ones at that. Not a step closer to the whodunit.

In the end, multiple bodies are found, dismembered. A bit of side drama occurs and the perp only gets uncovered in the end, how high will the body count be by then? What happened for them to finally find the perp?

I liked the story but it wasn’t as thrilling as the first couple of Erika Foster books. I will keep reading what Robert Bryndza writes but I hope that he’ll write as thrilling as the girl in the ice.

A ⭐⭐⭐.5 star rating for this book.