My Five Word TL:DR Review : Fast Paced, Dark and Brutal

Another winning Major Crimes story from Sam Holland.

In this story we return to DCI Cara Elliott and her brother Griffin (Nate) after taking a spin with another DCi for the second in series, The Twenty.  I’m loving this series so far.  The pacing is good, the stories are always compelling and I like the character work.  I would say that each novel in the series is a standalone and you don’t need to read the others (although you might miss a little character development if you jump in straight at this point).  That being said, the author does a good job of explaining things in a smooth way that blends seamlessly into the story.

Cara and her brother first made their appearance for The Echo Man, a gruesome tale of a serial killer that was bloody and brutal.  This story starts in a different fashion.  The team are asked to take a look at what appears to be a suicide, but things don’t quite add up and Cara is concerned by some troubling niggles, which increase substantially when a couple more suicides occur in quick succession.

I don’t really want to give anything away for this one as it’s best read with as little knowledge as possible so instead let’s look at what I enjoyed.

The pacing.  This series could be known as the ‘fast and furious’.  The plot moves forward at a terrific pace and I sometimes wonder if this is part of a cunning plan by the author to give the reader little chance to sit and ponder.  The storyline is also compelling.  It’s one of those stories that I’d like to say I enjoyed but it doesn’t feel like the right word at all – given the nature of some of the deaths in this (and also beware – there are plenty of TWs amongst these pages) – I think I’d say unputdownable instead.

It was really good to return to Cara and Griffin.  I liked the way they worked together tbh and hope that we see them in action again in future episodes.  Both of them are struggling with their own demons but at the same time are coming to understand that they can trust each other – it was a nice element to the story that worked well.  The team are under enormous strain.  The unit is depleted and everyone is stressed out.  It’s difficult to recruit to the team (for reasons that could be spoilery for previous books so I won’t mention) and the full situation feels like an accident waiting to happen.  As it is, they all manage to hold it together as they’re pulled from pillar to post following the strangest trail of breadcrumbs.

The setting is fairly small scale – which I liked.  The deaths here, whilst they initially feel unconnected, it soon appears that there are small similarities that begin to occur and although some of the characters are unknown to each other they move in very similar circles.

In terms of criticisms.  Well, not really a criticism but these stories are all a little over the top in some ways, I don’t think they always stick to reality and there are always plenty of twists.  I don’t mind this at all to be honest but thought it worth mentioning.

Also, as stated above this book can feel disturbingly brutal.  These murders are unapologetically grim so bear that in mind.

To round up, I thoroughly enjoyed The Puppet Master in fact I’d say it was my favourite of the series so far.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars