Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Tallowwood

AUTHOR: N.R. Walker

PUBLISHER: Blue Heart Press

RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2019

LENGTH: 375 pages

BLURB:

Cold cases, murder, lies, and an unimaginable truth.

Sydney detective August Shaw has spent the last decade of work solving cold cases. Since the death of his boyfriend eight years ago, August works alone, lives alone, is alone — and that’s exactly how he likes it. His work is his entire life, and he’s convinced a string of unsolved cold-case suicides are linked to what could be Australia’s worst ever serial killer. Problem is, no one believes him.

Senior Constable Jacob Porter loves his life in the small town of Tallowwood in the middle of the rainforests in northern New South Wales. He runs summer camps for the local Indigenous kids, plays rugby with his mates, has a close family, and he’s the local LGBTQIA+ Liaison and the Indigenous Liaison Officer.

When human remains are found in the camping grounds at Tallowwood Reserve, Jake’s new case turns out to be linked to August’s cold cases, and Jake agrees they’re not suicides at all. With Jacob now firmly in August’s corner, they face one hurdle after another, even when more remains are found, they still can’t seem to gain ground.

But when the body of a fellow police officer turns up under the same MO, it can’t be ignored anymore. August and Jake must trace the untraceable before the killer takes his next victim or before he stops one of them, permanently.

REVIEW:

Reviews don’t need to be coherent, right? Because after that intense ride I’m anything but. My heart is still pounding and I’m honestly a bit shaky from the adrenaline rush, but wow what a great night I’ve had with this book! I wished it would never end, but as they say; all good things must come to an end. So here I am, trying to explain how much I loved this book. Loved Jacob and August.

When I read that N.R. Walker was writing a mystery I was over the moon. It was a dream come true. I’m a big mystery lover. I love the chase and trying to figure out how all the clues fit together. The way my heart is ponding when you get close to solving it, or when the killer is lurking just around the corner, lying in wait for their next victim. I love it all.

Cold case detective August Shaw does not like people. He keeps to himself and doesn’t really speak to anyone if not strictly necessary for his work. For nearly a decade he’s lived only for his victims and has dedicated his entire life to finding the killers. One case in particular has haunted him. A string of murders no one but him believes to be related. A string of murders everyone but him are convinced are suicides. After all, gay people commit suicide all the time. That is until a set of remains is found in a campsite outside the small town of Tallowwood. And he finds an ally in Senior Constable Jacob Porter. Together they try to unravel the string of murders. To find the evidence to disprove the suicides. But the more they uncover the more resistance they meet – along with some horrible truths.

From that first page I was hooked. You could just feel that this was going to be a great book. There was such depth to the characters, a history we were not privy to, an unknown. It’s something I always appreciate, getting to know the characters little by little. And Walker let us get to know both Jacob and August in our own time, and boy did I ever fall hard for them both. The book focuses more on August and his past rather than Jacob, but it’s something that fits with the story, it wouldn’t be as natural to have Jake as the focal point. And in August’s case the past hurts radiates from him, surrounds him to the point where he’s drowning in it. It was everywhere, so fair warning you might shed a tear or two over everything that he’s been through.

Tallowwood called to August. The life, the community, the belonging. Almost as soon as he stepped foot in the town you could feel him start healing in a way that he couldn’t in Sydney. Jacob helped him get there. I loved how they just clicked – they understood each other on a molecular level. And watching their relationship grow was beautiful.

Reading this book was truly a race against time. Not only did I need to finish it in a decent hour if I was going to be of any use the day after. The killer needed to be stopped in a big way, but what’s more, it was also a race against the dying battery of my e-reader. I kept watching the battery ticking down 20% …. 12 % … 5%… 3%… More than once I wondered if I’d make it and more than once you could hear me saying “Just a few more pages…”

And how did it end you might wonder? Well, with a heart that couldn’t stop pounding the guilty party was stopped (did you ever think Walker would write a story that didn’t have a happy ending?) and I had a full effing one percent left of the battery of my e-reader. Talk about living on the edge – bookworms style!

Now I have just one more thing I’d like to say; Please, please, please Ms. Walker write many more mysteries like this in the future, because this one was just perfect and addictive and everything a great mystery should be.

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

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