Crime on the Fens

Crime on the Fens (DI Nikki Galena, #1) by Joy Ellis
Mystery
2016 Tantor Audio
Read by Henrietta Meire
Finished on August 29, 2018
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

THE DETECTIVE DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she’s seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She’s got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she’s been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she’s out.

HER PARTNER DS Joseph Easter is the handsome squeaky-clean new member of the team. But his nickname “Holy Joe” belies his former life as a soldier. He has an estranged daughter who blames him for everything that went wrong with their family.

THEIR ADVERSARY is a ruthless man who holds DI Galena responsible for his terrible disfigurement.

The town is being terrorised by gangs of violent thugs, all wearing identical hideous masks. Then a talented young female student goes missing on the marsh and Nikki and Joseph find themselves joining forces with a master criminal in their efforts to save her. They need to look behind the masks, but when they do, they find something more sinister and deadly than they ever expected . . .

THE SETTING
The Lincolnshire Fens: great open skies brood over marshes, farmland, and nature reserves. It is not easy terrain for the Fenland Constabulary to police, due to the distances between some of the remote Fen villages, the dangerous and often misty lanes, and the poor telephone coverage. There are still villages where the oldest residents have never set foot outside their own farmland and a visit to the nearest town is a major event. But it has a strange airy beauty to it, and above it all are the biggest skies you’ve ever seen.

I had never heard of Joy Ellis (or this series) until I read about her books on Kay's blog last January. Kay reads A LOT of mysteries and has written reviews for several of the books in this series. Since I love listening to this genre on audio, I decided to give Crime on the Fens a try. Henrietta Meire turned out to be a great reader for this book! I enjoyed this first installment so much that I went on and listened to the second one right away. As with most of the mystery series I read (as opposed to thrillers), it's less about the actual mystery and more about the main cast of characters. Nikki and Joe are becoming two of my favorite duos. Thanks, Kay!