City of Drowned Souls (Elisenda Domènech Investigations #3) - Chris Lloyd

Synopsis:

When a child disappears, the clock starts ticking
Detective Elisenda Domènech has had a tough few years. The loss of her daughter and a team member; the constant battles against colleagues and judges; the harrowing murder investigations… But it’s about to get much worse.

When the son of a controversial local politician goes missing at election time, Elisenda is put on the case. They simply must solve it. Only the team also have to deal with a spate of horrifically violent break-ins. People are being brutalised in their own homes and the public demands answers.

Could there be a connection? Why is nobody giving a straight answer? And where is Elisenda’s key informant, apparently vanished off the face of the earth? With the body count threatening to increase and her place in the force on the line, the waters are rising…

Be careful not to drown.

The stunning new instalment of the gripping Elisenda Domènech crime thrillers for readers of Ian Rankin, Henning Mankell and Andrea Camilleri.

Review:

It felt so good to be back with Elisenda and the team again, since the last book its been a few months and people have clicked on that Elisender is still struggling with the lost of her daughter years before. The book begins with a small few pages that you need to keep in your head because they are so relevant when you get near the end of the book. When we do get to Elisenda, she has been put on leave and forced into bereavement counselling every morning, However, just days into being on leave the disappearance of a controversial politicians son leads her back into the filed at the same time she and her team are trying to solve and stop to violent burglaries of houses.

The team is split in 2, one set are working the missing child case whilst the other works the violent burglaries case. Elisender is also looking for her informant who gave her bad intel before disappearing off of the face of the earth. There are a lot of strands in this book, your pretty much have to follow each lead with the strands as far as you can before it snaps. There are avenues of investigation that have to be covered or are covered just to make sure and it really is a book that you actually don't get lost in because it all makes perfect sense.

As for the characters there are a few new characters here, we see the controversial politician Susanna Miravent and her husband Marc Comas, also her campaign leader  Francesc Bofarull. Jauame is the missing child and what makes this case even more important and yet confusing is their eldest son Albert had gone missing 5 years previous. With so many threads to pull at I'm surprised to have seen the team stay sane.

We have the regular POV's of the team members and also a mystery POV that you pretty much assume is a certain someone once you read it.

What's great about this book is the path of it because you automatically believe what you have been lead to believe, you don't question it at all, you just go with it. In the end I must warn you not everything is as it seems. The paths of 2 cases could be linked or the people involved with either case might be linked to the other you just don't know until you read the whole book. Its beyond gripping and I fell in love. Even though I struggled with the first book City Of Good Deaths I'm far beyond in love with the series now since I've read the following two books.

After all the mystery and tension I definitely didn't see the end coming and I know I say that about a lot of book but this one really was that good. I didn't at all expect it to unfold the way it did. Its an easy 5/5 for this book and I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants an immersive thrilling mysterious read and has the time to read it. As this is, for now the end of my journey with Elisender and the team I feel it has been a great journey so far, I'm thankful for it and I cant wait to see them again in the near future hopefully.

City of Buried Ghosts (Elisenda Domènech Investigations #2) - Chris Lloyd

Synopsis:

Be careful what you dig up… Still recovering from the tragedy that hit her team, Elisenda takes on a new case. Except it’s not new. On an archaeological dig by the coast a body is uncovered, seemingly executed with a spike thrust through the base of the skull – an ancient tribal ritual. It soon becomes clear that this body is neither ancient nor modern, but a mysterious corpse from the 1980s.

Assigned to the case along with her team, Elisenda soon uncovers a complex world of star archaeologists, jealousy and missing persons. They find a dark trade in illicit antiquities, riddled with vicious professional rivalries. And even though she’s staying close to the crime scene, Elisenda is also never far from enemies of her own within the police force.

Just as the case seems to become clear it is blown wide-open by another horrific murder. Elisenda must fight her personal demons and office politics, whilst continuing to uncover plots and hatreds that were long buried. How far will she go to solve the crime? Is her place in the force secure? And can she rebuild her life?

Review:

So this book takes places many months after the first instalment and its clear straight away that Elisenda is still struggling with her demons and that the rest of her team are still trying to cope with the betrayal and loss of one of their team members. As stated in the synopsis, the team end up with a cold case and then a fresh case both just as gory and very disturbing. This story is about the archaeological world and its unseen dark side. It explores the issue of stolen archaeological artefacts which somehow ties into two murders committed over thirty years apart.

The plot really is great, I love how much detail Chris uses as it keep you engaged and leaves you wanting to actually go an visit the setting itself. The more I read the further I fall in love with the series, I fell further in love with the members of the team after I got to know them a little bit more. Part of me really does just want to wrap them up in cotton wool and keep them safe. Elisenda is still strong and independent and smart and she still has not issue with standing up for what she believes in no matter what which I really love, I hope that soon she can fight off her demons and have all the happiness she deserves. Alex is still haunted by his experience from the last book and I really feel for him as you can really se how deeply it has effected him, its changed his character and it actually made me sad. All Elisenda wants is for the old Alex she knows to return but he doubts that he ever will. I feel like Josep and Montse are the ruts of the litter, like they are giving the long and draining parts of the investigations, doing a lot of research and fiddly things, they do their job well and with their characters doing it, it really helps paint a picture of them and how hard working they are.

I don't really want to give too much detail on the story because this story is one of those that can lose its touch if one thing is spoilt. What I can say is though you need to settle down and hold on tight because there are twists you can not see coming. You can try and figure it out like I tried to, I have faith you might do better than I did because I wasn't even close. I feel like you should try your best to remember every character you see in the span of this book just so you can get a clearer picture of everything and trust me it will help you understand.

You easily get absorbed in the story and can really believe you're involved. I cant even think of a bad thing about this book, not this time. I didn't really know what to expect going into the book but I really loved what I got when I was there. its a 5 out of 5 from me and I really cant wait to see what Chris has in store for Elisenda and her team in City of Drowned Souls which I will be moving on to read in the near future.

I have to recommend this to any crime/thriller reader, I don't feel like youd have to read the first instalment but if you want to get to really know the characters, reading it would be best.

City of Good Death (Elisenda Domènech series) - Chris Lloyd

Synopsis:

An intense and brilliantly realised crime thriller set in the myth-soaked streets of Girona

A killer is targeting hate figures in the Catalan city of Girona – a loan shark, a corrupt priest, four thugs who have blighted the streets of the old quarter – leaving clues about his next victim through mysterious effigies left hung on a statue. Each corpse is posed in a way whose meaning no one can fathom. Which is precisely the point the murderer is trying to make.

Elisenda Domènech, the solitary and haunted head of the city’s newly-formed Serious Crime Unit, is determined to do all she can to stop the attacks. She believes the attacker is drawing on the city’s legends to choose his targets, but her colleagues aren’t convinced and her investigation is blocked at every turn.

Battling against the increasing sympathy towards the killer displayed by the press, the public and even some of the police, she finds herself forced to question her own values. But when the attacks start to include less deserving victims, the pressure is suddenly on Elisenda to stop him. The question is: how?

Review:

City of Good Death( Elisenda Domènech series) is the first in the series. We are introduced to Elisenda Domènech herself and those who work by her side at the city’s newly-formed Serious Crime Unit composed of Alex and Elisenda' small team. We get introduced to many more characters who we do see a few more times in the book and we're all set for the whole book once all of the characters have been introduced and there's no one else hiding anywhere.

We get to see Elisenda in action and we also get to know her sad personal experiences just as the time is right. Elisenda herself is a very strong woman, she stands up for her team and always sticks to what she knows is right and pushes what she believes is right, right to the edge to see if it really is right.

Girona is a beautiful place,located in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region. In this book though, Girona becomes plagued with acts of violence and murder and it is up to Elisenda and her crime unit to catch whoever is plaguing the city.

I don't really want to give too much detail on the story because this story is one of those that can lose its touch if one thing is spoilt. This novel is so heavy. I mean heavy in the sense of when you're absorbed into this world, where acts of murders and violence are suddenlv spiking and morals are being turned on their heads you seem to feel the weight of it all on your shoulders because although immersed in the book, your real life morals are fighting head to head with the morals of the city characters and it becomes difficult to not end up on the same wavelength of Elisenda.

It is a great read from start to end, it took me a while to get into it properly just because I was finding it hard to stay immersed when it came to the short language changes that come up. That was really the only downside to me and even then it really is just a small one. There's enough detail to make you believe you're there and the characters seem to feel like you live next door to them. Deffinetly a 4.8 out of 5. I can't wait to see what's next in City of Buried Ghosts and City of Drowned Souls