Title: Portraits of the Dead (DI Gravel #1)
Author: John Nicholl
Narrator: Jake Urry
Link: https://www.audible.com/pd/Portraits-of-the-Dead-Audiobook/B01MDMFOR0
Summary
Emma didn’t know how long he hid, silent and unmoving, in the large Victorian wardrobe to the side of her single bed. She didn’t know how long he peered out, salivating and drooling, between the two heavy dark oak doors, and watched, mesmerized, as she slowly drifted into fitful sleep. She didn’t know what time he pushed the doors open and crept towards her in the drab grey darkness of the night.
Detective Inspector Gravel finds himself floundering when a local 19-year-old university student is abducted and imprisoned by a sadistic serial killer, who has already tortured and killed five young women.
My Review
5/5 Stars
When Emma wakes up, she’s not in her room. She’s in a prison, and a serial killer is her warden. He has plans for her. How well she obeys will decide how long she gets to live. Detective Gravel finds himself responsible for finding her, and when it comes out that she’s in the hands of someone who has potentially killed five other women, the stakes are instantly raised.
This was one of those books that hooked me right from the beginning, and I wanted to devour it all in one setting. Pretty unnerving killer. Right from the beginning, we’re shown the depths of his depravity, and as the book goes on, we see it gets worse. I don’t want to give anything away, but I found his choice of partners to be most intriguing. Emma, the heroine, was pretty interesting in her own way, but I found a lot of her arc to be predictable. Her actions at the end were badass though.
Narration was well done.
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
Author Kayla Krantz 