Blog Tour Review, The Girls on Chalk Hill

The Girls on Chalk Hill

419 pages
Bookouture
published June 26, 2023

About the Book: 

They lie on the hillside, wearing matching white dresses, tiaras in their blonde hair. Each of them clutches a red rose. They could be sleeping, but frost shines on the lashes of their wide blue eyes, frozen open forever…

Detective Lexi Bennett is devastated when she finds the two teenagers lying side by side on the quiet green hillside, their throats cut. Convinced this is no ordinary killer, she vows to draw on all her profiling experience to find justice for these beautiful girls who will never have the chance to grow up.

But when the victims are identified as Lucy and Eden Carter, Lexi’s blood turns cold. The sisters were triplets – and the third girl, Paige, is missing. The case suddenly feels frighteningly personal. Lexi was a triplet too, and she and her sisters were abducted as teens. Two of them escaped but Lexi’s dreams are still haunted by memories of the faceless man who took them, and her sister Rose, who she never saw again.

Her boss thinks she’s too close to the case, but Lexi is sure the monster who took her is back with a message. She throws herself into the investigation, hunting down every clue, certain that time is running out to save Paige.

Then she returns home to find the back door open and Rose’s diary on the kitchen table. As she traces her beloved sister’s handwriting, her heart breaking, Lexi swears she will not rest until this brutal monster is caught. Will the diary help her find him before Paige is killed? Or is she walking into a trap designed just for her?

A completely compelling serial killer thriller that will make your pulse race on every page. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Angela Marsons and J M Dalgliesh will love The Girls on Chalk Hill.

My Review

I love nothing more than when its personal for a detective in a crime novel and this one hits it out of the park.  Lexi is a triplet and was abducted years ago and one of her sisters did not survive.  And at the start of this one she stumbles across twins that were murdered when she is out on her run.  Only to investigate and find out they are triplets and one of them is missing.  How does it get any more personal than that?  I was hooked.  Now throw in some chapters from the killer’s point of view, so the readers know more than the detectives and get to watch her piece it together.  I really like the start of this new series.

We learn about what brings Lexi to this point in her life and to this new job she is starting.  She doesn’t feel like a dime a dozen detective.  We meet her new team and get to see how they operate as they work together to save the missing triplet.  I wanted to watch the cat and mouse game unfold right from the start.  The triplet story is fresh and something I haven’t read before even though I have read more than my share of detective novels.  The story was layered and kept me wanting to know how it would end.  This wasn’t just will they find the killer, but will they figure it out in time to save the missing triplet.

Lexi is a relatable character and there is more to her story that I want to see unfold in future books in the series.  I am really looking forward to reading more in this series.

If you are looking for a new take on the detective series, I would pick this one up.  You won’t be disappointed.

Author Bio

In 2016, I entered and won Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect competition. This secured me an agent and a three-book publishing deal with Orion for my police procedural series set in the world of tattoos and tattooing. My first novel, The Tattoo Thief, was translated into 15 languages, was a No 1 bestseller in Italy and is the first instalment of the internationally acclaimed Tattoo Thief trilogy. I also write in collaboration with my brother Nick Higgins – Canelo has published our action thriller series set in Afghanistan, Death In Kabul and Death in Helmand. Now I’m embarking on a fresh crime series with Bookouture. It’s set in Canterbury, featuring DI Lexi Bennett, newly appointed to lead the Major Incident Team after a spell working with the FBI’s specialist serial killer unit.