Faith Martin

The start of a brand new series from the global bestselling author of the DI Hillary Greene series.

A Fatal Obsession (Ryder and Loveday, Book 1)

Mary Baldwin

I glossed over it at the time, that the series is called “Ryder and Loveday” which would have been a huge clue that the books foundations are the relationship of this duo. But as I overlooked it, I got to enjoy the raw development of their relationship which was one of the book’s strongest assets.

The story is set in the 50’s, a time of post war recovery and one where women were discovering a new place for themselves in society, albeit still faced with much prejudice and misogyny.

As a “WPC” (can you believe it was only 1999 when the “woman” prefix was removed from the title of a female police constable!?) Trudy is challenging stereotypes from her colleagues and the familial expectations on her - Trudy’s Mum is adamant she will one day realise being a homemaker is her real calling, and she’ll hang up her police cap.

We meet Trudy in her probationary period with the Police, and it’s obvious that not only is she sharp and ambitious but willing to face into the challenge of proving to her peers and superiors that her gender is not a barrier to her abilities.

The scene and tone are established really quickly, and the plot soon takes off when we meet “The Vulture”, a notorious surgeon-turned-coroner (with some struggles of his own) who has a reputation for being a thorn in the side of senior police officials for his diligence and doggedness. 

Using a recent violent murder and some niggles about an historic case, Ryder requests some police support to dig deeper. Trudy is put forward, and although her superiors see it as “keeping her out of the way” we soon see that Ryder knows she’s an asset. 

I absolutely loved their interactions, and how Ryder; despite being someone we’d assume to be very sexist and dominant as other characters of similar standing are, he shows us he’s quite the opposite and willing to help Trudy learn.

The characters, the past and the present are so closely woven together that I was left guessing - in fact, not even guessing, right until the end. I had no idea what Ryder and Loveday would actually uncover. 

Not only was the plot fantastic, but each character is built with small details that speak to their motivations and mind set. There’s no heavy police procedure but the contrast in how difficult investigative work was pre-technology is fantastically handled. 

This is a wonderful crime thriller, with the addition of great characters and the eye opening insight into the life of a women excelling in “a man’s world”

A Fatal Obsession (Ryder and Loveday, Book 1)

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