The Kill List (An Inspector Anjelica Henley Thriller, 3)
“Third in the Anjelica Henley series, The Kill List offers an intense and rapidly twisting plot, well-probed emotional costs, and a stunning but realistic finale.”
British author Nadine Matheson’s Anjelica Henley thriller series hits peak intensity in The Kill List, as the detective inspector faces the possible prison release of a serial murderer in her region. That’s tough for any police officer to face—but DI Henley has two bigger reasons traumatizing her. First, a claim that this murderer might have been innocent could in turn force her to suspect her much-mourned training officer, DCI Harry Rhimes, of corruption and malice in the original investigation. It’s a horrifying idea; Anj isn’t even “over” Rhimes’s death, and she and her fellow officers are shaken by even the possibility that Rhimes could have deceived them and perverted justice.
But it’s worse than that: Although Rhimes headed her unit, she’d met him back when she was 15 and her best friend was murdered (in very gruesome manner) by the serial killer, Andrew Streeter. Even talking about this with her husband or colleagues feels like more than she can handle. There’s no easy way to re-live such trauma.
Except, of course, the possible release of Streeter acts as a trigger for the decades-quiet real murderer, and suddenly Henley is plunged into the heart of an investigation that threatens to shatter her daily life and her marriage as well. Her husband is blunt about what he sees:
“This job doesn’t do anything for you. All it’s brought us is stress and pain.” Her response: “You’re making it sound as though I actively put myself in danger.” His: “People do strange things in order to feel validated.” Can you blame Henley for swearing at her spouse and walking away from the conversation? Because, after all, in some ways her husband’s most pointed accusation is true: Her closest family has become the crime unit where she works. And that makes the pain about possible betrayal within it, by Rhimes, even more of a disaster.
Matheson writes smoothly and intensely, using no tricks to keep the suspense rolling and the danger ramping up. Be warned that she uses multiple points of view, including that of the real murderer, who includes various forms of torture in his killing pattern—those are stomach-turning segments to read.
But the core of this book is Henley’s investigative process, both strong and compassionate. Her understanding of victims in particular lets her cut to the chase when needed, as when she interviews a potential witness, Jemima, who “looked small and fragile . . . dark shadows under her eyes, as though she had smudged it with the remains of mascara, and the whites of her eyes were stained red.” When Jemima leaves the room for a moment, Henley is quick to investigate the empty seat and discovers a knife hidden against the cushion. “To protect herself,” Henley whispers to her work partner Salim Ramouter. “We need to get her to tell us what she’s scared of.” That empathic insight and the gentle pressure that Henley then applies will create the first big crack in the newly enflamed case of abduction and murder. Whoever the serial murderer is, he’s not just fulfilling his sociopathic desires; instead, he’s tying up loose ends that an overturned conviction for Streeter could quickly highlight.
Third in the Anjelica Henley series, The Kill List offers an intense and rapidly twisting plot, well-probed emotional costs, and a stunning but realistic finale. Brace for a compelling read that outpaces the genre and feels all too close to the morning news.