Roxie Key’s debut novel, The Deadly Spark, is really very good: a proper thriller, well- constructed, intricate, and with excellent characters and a cracking plot. It’s set in Brighton, where a series of arson attacks have got the police worried, and the latest attack has had deadly consequences, because a young mother and her 5-year-old daughter have perished, making it a murder inquiry. Soon another murder follows.
The protagonist in The Deadly Spark is Eve Starling, a detective constable with a tragic past. As she and the police team investigate the latest fire they find the main suspect (after all others have proved to have good alibis) to be the dead woman’s partner – a young woman called Anya, who has disappeared and may now be dead.
Described as a ‘psychological suspense crime thriller’ there are several strands to the story. There’s Eve’s present and Eve’s past; Anya’s present and past; and the mysterious Kate, a woman whom we immediately realise is, in fact, Anya on the run. In Eve’s past there’s a tragedy that has to do with fire, although we are never sure if this is relevant. And Anya has an equally tragic past, which she’s running and hiding from. To start with, the changes of narrator and timeline are confusing but you soon get used to it.
The murder is eventually solved by Eve, when she witnesses Anya’s reaction to seeing someone. But along the way the reader is presented with several surprises, some quite shocking.
Our verdict
Yes, the construction of this novel and the plot are complicated. But Roxie Key tells all the different story strands very cleverly, so they and the timelines never feel muddled. And the writing is good. The chapters are short and sharp, with each one pulling you forward to find out what happens next.
The author writes with a light hand and the characters she has created are beautifully drawn, with the foibles we all have as well as an extra layer that we hope we don’t! The almost-all female team of detectives are particularly vividly described and all of us enjoyed reading about several women, all in key roles, working in a team led by a woman.
The villain was very well camouflaged, right up until the point they were about to be revealed. But note that this wasn’t nearly the end of the story, because all the different threads are tied up in unexpected ways and the real ‘end’ is immensely satisfying, with a very surprising twist on what is almost the last page.
Obviously, reading this as a group, some of us liked this book more than others, but the majority view of Oundle Crime is that we’d recommend The Deadly Spark to anyone who enjoys a fast-paced light read with a clever plot, because it ticks all those boxes. Apparently, there’s another book about Eve Starling in the pipeline which we look forward to reading, and in the meantime we give this 4 Stars.
Review by: Oundle Crime
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