Killing Pretties by Rob Ashman
The Blurb:
Detective Sergeant Khenan Malice is a rubbish ex-husband, a crap father but a damned good detective. It’s a shame he spoils his only redeeming quality by being a bent copper. Detective Kelly Pietersen joins the team to help find a missing woman. But Kelly has a secret... Damien Kaplan is a leading criminal barrister and a keen amateur potter. He also happens to be a serial killer with a chilling approach to creating his art. He’s married to Elsa, though she considers him more of a possession than a husband. She controls those around her using sex and procures men and women for her husband to play with but only after she’s finished with them first. Killing Pretties is his passion, having sex with them is hers. It is difficult to say which one is worse. The missing woman brings all four crashing together – an incendiary mix that doesn’t end well.
About Rob Ashman:
Rob is married to Karen with two grown up daughters. He is originally from South Wales and after moving around with work settled in North Lincolnshire. Like all good welsh valley boys Rob worked for the National Coal Board after leaving school at sixteen and went to University at the tender age of twenty-three when the pit closures began to bite. Since then he's worked in a variety of manufacturing and consulting roles both in the UK and abroad. It took Rob twenty-four years to write his first book. He only became serious about writing it when his dad got cancer. It was an aggressive illness and Rob gave up work for three months to look after him and his mum. Writing Those That Remain became his coping mechanism. After he wrote the book his family encouraged him to continue, so not being one for half measures, Rob got himself made redundant, went self-employed so he could devote more time to writing and four years later the Mechanic Trilogy was the result. Rob published Those That Remain, In Your Name and Pay the Penance with Bloodhound Books and has since written the DI Rosalind Kray series. These are Faceless, This Little Piggy, Suspended Retribution and Jaded which are also published by Bloodhound. His latest work sees the introduction of a new set of characters - DS Khenan Malice and DC Kelly Pietersen. The first book in the series is titled Killing Pretties and the second is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Lies. Both books will be published this year. When he is not writing, Rob is a frustrated chef with a liking for beer and prosecco, and is known for occasional outbreaks of dancing.
My Review:
Of all of the books I have read so far this year, this is the one to hide from the faint-hearted readers amongst us, and disturbingly one that I could not put down, so I don't what that is saying about me. The story is about a depraved deadly duo, Damian and Elsa, an unlikely couple, she with a taste for promiscuity, and he getting his rocks off disposing of her playmates once she has had her fill, in uniquely monstrous ways. The good news is that this is the first in a series, DS Malice, a maverick cop and his sidekick, Detective Pietersen are a winning combination and I eagerly await number two in the DS Malice series.
