First Line Fridays: Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza

I have enjoyed Robert Bryndza’s thrillers in the past and was eager to read the first book in his new series, Nine Elms. The novel centres on the Nine Elms serial killer that Kate Marshall had captured when she was a young police officer. Capturing the killer led to a scandal and the dissolution of her career. Fifteen years later, Kate is working as a lecturer at a small coastal English university when a copycat killer takes up the mantle and continues the work of his idol. With her assistant Tristan Harper, Kate draws on her long-neglected investigative skills to catch a new monster.

The extract I am sharing are the first lines of one of the beginning chapters in the novel. It is at the start of the investigation and Kate is battling her past demons and her alcoholism:

“Kate didn’t remember leaving the morgue or saying goodbye to Alan. She found herself emerging from the long dank tunnel and out into the car park. Her legs moved, and the blood pumped so hard and fast in her veins that it felt painful. Everything was muffled; the sound of the busy road as she crossed. A thin mist, which was starting to manifest around the dull yellow of the streetlights. The fear she felt was irrational. It wasn’t one image, or one thought, but it consumed her. Is this fear going to finish me this one, once and for all? she thought. Her neck and back were running with sweat, but the cold air made her shiver.” (p 56, 2019, Thomas & Mercer).

I enjoyed the rest of this nail-biting story and look forward to reading more in this new series. If you enjoy mysteries and thrillers, join me in my enjoyment of this author’s work.

Would you read Kate Marshall’s story in Nine Elms?

© Colline Kook-Chun, 2020

(This post is linked to It’s Not Hoarding If It’s Books and her One Line Friday challenge.)