A gripping series opener. 4/5 stars.

Thank you to Karen Long for sending me a copy of The Safe Word in return for an honest review.

The blurb: There are rules that every player of every game must abide by, no matter how dangerous the sport.

Toronto has become the backdrop to a macabre set of artistic installations: women kidnapped, tortured and horrifically displayed by a killer with a vision.

Only someone capable of understanding the killer’s creative desire will be able to stop the murders and D I Eleanor Raven is uniquely qualified. Driven by a complex personality she pursues only the facts, only the things she can see, but never casts a judgement.

But she also has a dark and dangerous secret – one that will threaten her very survival.

My take:

I met Karen at a bloggers/writers meet-up in London back in March and she kindly offered to send me a copy of The Safe Word. Thank you Karen. It’s a total coincidence that this week is also her blog tour for this book. And, if you head over to Have Books Blog, you can enter a draw to win a copy 🙂

This first installment in the Eleanor Raven series has everything fans of police procedurals could want. An escalating, chilling serial killer. A competent, hard-boiled female detective on his tail, struggling as she totes round a new partner who also happens to be an irritating rookie. A likeable cast of colourful secondary characters. Hell, there’s even a dog! Ultimately, the experience reminded me of watching some of the best crime drama I’ve seen. In fact, this book could easily be adapted into a cracking TV mini series.

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