N.J. Mackay: The Quiet Dead

In the start of a new series N.J. MacKay, when a man confessed to a murder turns out to be innocent:

Hayley DaSilva walks in on a scene that no one should, the murder of her mother, brother, her brother's friend and her youngest brother missing and who was never found. He farther admits to the murder and is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 15 years later, when a new development is being put in, small bones are dug up from the ground. They belong to Ethan DaSilva, he has finally been found. Hayley now lives in America in a new life, one where no ones knows that her family has been murdered. When she receives the phone call that Ethan has been found, she goes back to England and is forced to face the truth about what happens. DI. Sebastian Locke is assigned to the case and right away, he can tell that the case was not handled well and they were too quick to convict a man and the really murderer is out there. But 15 years has past, can DI Locke finally get justice for the DeSilva family?

I liked that Mackay does not do flashbacks other that what the characters remember, which is not much due to drugs and alcohol consumed at the time. I think that this made it harder to put the evidence together, for both the reader and the investigators in the book, as people are being asked to remember things from 15 years ago. There is never really a clear suspect within the book as the investigators continue their investigation, I enjoyed this, as it kept me on my toes in trying to figure out what happened back then and who has gotten away with murder. I will say I did not have it all figured out, which does not happen very often.

There are dual POV in this book, one of our investigator DI. Sebastian Locke and the only survivor of her family Hayley DeSilva and I did not mind this, but at the same time, I found that Hayley's POV were repetitive at times. She was not able to add much to the investigation, so I found some of her chapters felt slightly like filler chapters. They do make you care for Hayley as a character as you feel really sorry for her for what she has suffered, but that is not the point of the book, the point of the book is to solve what is now a cold case.

You have to admire DI Locke in the book, he is determined and wants everything done right, no matter where the truth may take him. I also like that Mackay took time to make Locke seem like a real person with having some of his family life shown in the book. 

This was a good book and a good start to a series, I really enjoyed the cold case aspect and to me it seemed the investigation was on point. I hope that Sebastian and Lucy work together again, I think they had a good dynamic with each other. I would check out another book in this series.

Enjoy!!!

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