Welcome back to the LIBrary! Who's excited for my latest book review? Following the theme of crime fiction [yes, I am obsessed, what can I say?!], I have just turned the last page of Hard Girls by Martina Cole. Again, this is another book I have owned for quite some time and, for years it has been gathering dust at the top of my book shelf at home but, believe me, I am thoroughly delighted that I FINALLY decided to gather it down and dust it off for this week's bedtime read. Over the years, I have read a few of Martina's crime novels and I have always enjoyed the honest outlook she takes on crime in London and the policing that occurs. Her novels are usually gritty and the imagery is always incredibly vivid but that's what sets her novels apart from authors of the same genre.

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Retired Kate Burrows, a former Detective Chief Inspector at Grantley Police Station, now works alongside Detective Inspector Annie Carr as a specialist consultant. Admired by most and detested by those superior to her, DCI Burrows is famously known by her co-workers for apprehending not one, but two, rampant serial killers across London during her vast career. Assisting DI Carr, Burrows is called to the scene of the body of a young prostitute, left on display, mutilated and brutally raped and, with her personal life crumbling around her, she throws herself at the opportunity to catch yet another infamous serial murderer.

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As the bodies of young prostitutes begin to pile up across London and very little DNA evidence or witness statements to aid them in their investigation, DI Carr and DCI Burrows are in a race against time, desperately wanting to save the working girls of Grantley. In a captivating twist, however, the detectives soon realise the perpetrator is a little closer to home than they would have liked to imagine.

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The Plot 

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Surprising for a crime fiction novel, Hard Girls is a slow tension builder and, if I am being completely honest, I don't think I was as gripped at the beginning of this novel as I have been with several other crime books I have read in the past. Having said that, this book is most certainly still worthy of being read. Whilst, to begin with, it might appear as just another gritty London based drama series, as the plot unravels you soon realise that Hard Girls is so much more than that.

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I particularly relished in the intervention of DCI Burrows personal life, her relationship with East End crook, Patrick Kelly [a relationship that infuriates yet impresses her colleagues at the police station], and his involvement with the properties that the prostitutes are found in is almost like an episode of Eastenders [but, in a good way!] Moving further into the novel, Cole soon begins to build-up the tension as she introduces each new victim at the start of a new chapter; the prostitutes final moments before death, their musings on their career as a working girl and the building fear as more and more girls are ending up dead. I have often found that when authors identify a character such as that that it can ruin the pace of the book, reveal spoilers or hint at an indication of who the perpetrator might be but, this was the complete opposite. Each and every new chapter, each and every murdered prostitute increases the momentum of the novel and, before you know it, you're hooked! I can honestly say that this is the crime novel in a VERY long time that I have not anticipated the ending before I am even halfway though the book.

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And so, this brings us to the ending. Personally, I think it was PHENOMENAL. I am trying my hardest here not to give away any spoilers because the revelation of the murderer's identity is quite possibly one of the best things I have read EVER. I am not exaggerating when I say that, if you go and pick up this book and persevere to the end, you will be completely, and utterly, dumbfounded by the concluding chapters. And, it just goes to show, you cannot always judge a book by its cover...