Life Sentence by A.K. Turner #bookreview #blogtour @AnyaLipska @ZaffreBooks

On my blog today, I’m delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for the new novel by A.K. Turner, Life Sentence. With thanks to Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers, for inviting me to take part.

BLURB

Mortuary technician Cassie Raven believes the last thoughts of the dead linger like static in the air…

Cassie has always had a strange affinity with death, ever since her parents were killed in a car crash when she was four. At least that’s what she grew up believing…

But that was a lie. Cassie’s father is alive. He was convicted of murdering her mother and spent years behind bars. Now he’s out – and he’s looking for her.

He swears he didn’t do it. And Cassie wants to believe him.

To find the truth, she must turn detective. As she seeks answers, help is to be found in inexplicable places – for the dead are ready to talk.

MY THOUGHTS

I loved the first book in A K Turner’s Cassie Raven series and I immediately liked Cassie when I read it. She is quite a different protagonist to what I have seen before in crime fiction. I like her quirkiness and how she attends to the dead in the mortuary she works in, believing that she can communicate with the dead. In the latest book in the series, Life Sentence, this time Cassie is very much in the spotlight as she tries to piece together what happened to her mother, who was killed by her father more than two decades earlier.

Life Sentence is very much Cassie’s story. A K Turner delves even more into her background in this book, and into the tragic event that happened in her past. You can see clearly how determined Cassie is to get answers, even though the police believe that her father was the man responsible for what happened to her mother. He has recently been released from prison and is determined to strike up a relationship with his daughter again after so long, and he continues to protest that he had nothing to do with her mother’s murder.

You get a real sense that there are secrets to be uncovered here, especially, I thought, with Cassie’s grandmother, who she is currently living with. I felt that her grandmother wasn’t telling her everything she ought to know about her parents, and I wondered what this would do to their relationship, if her grandmother was harbouring a big secret. I loved Cassie’s relationship with her grandmother in the first book and the same in this one, so I was worried about what Cassie’s pursuit for the truth, would mean for their relationship.

I liked how A K Turner weaved the plot together and there were definitely a few elements to the mystery, surrounding what happened to Cassie’s parents that surprised me. A K Turner continues to turn the tension up a notch as Cassie gets closer and closer to the real truth. I was flying through the pages as she begins to realise what actually happened. There are some very hard hitting truths that come to light, and I’m interested to see where A K Turner will take this series next from here.

Cassie Raven is a character who I will definitely keep coming back to. She is so fascinating, and A K Turner always writes gripping prose that pulls you into the story. I really enjoyed Life Sentence. If you haven’t discovered this series yet, you’re missing out!

Publisher: Zaffre

Publication date: 14th April 2022

Print length: 337 pages

Life Sentence is available to buy:

Amazon UK Kobo Waterstones

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