The Quiet Deaths

Deaths are occurring in Hipton, a small market town in England. Each time they are explained. But what if these deaths weren't natural deaths after all? What if they were murder? This is a psychological crime thriller where the reader knows the female killer, Agnes Brink from the first page. The novel tracks Agnes Brink as she plans and kills her victims and we learn why she is doing this. There is a fast pace to the novel which unfolds in both Hipton and Amsterdam, home of Agnes Brink, with each chapter alternating between the two places. We meet DCI Mark Morgan, based in Hipton who has the tricky job of solving what at first were deaths thought to be the result of natural causes. As the novel progresses, we delve into the past to learn more about Agnes Brink and the strange world she inhabits. Agnes Brink is a dangerous woman, whose preoccupation with researching what she thinks is her family tree, leads her to kill. Her mind steadily becomes more delusional as the novel progresses, leading to a total of three murders with an attempted fourth. She is desperately trying to create a family for herself, something that she has never truly had. But the way she goes about it is terrifying. There are also plenty of back stories to keep the reader interested which give us an insight into Mark Morgan's busy and complicated life and those of his family and friends. The characters are colourful and set the scene for a series of five or six novels, each one set in Hipton together with another European location.