Knock Knock by Chris Merritt #BlogTour @bookouture #review @DrCJMerritt #KnockKnock

Knock Knock by Chris Merritt (Book One in Lockhart & Green Series)

Published by Bookouture

Publication Date: 17th March 2020
Genre: Crime

My thanks to Noelle Holten from Bookouture for the invitation to be part of the blog tour.
All views and opinions are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

Natasha Mayston wasn’t expecting anyone to knock on her door so late at night. And she has no idea that the face staring back at her is the last one she’ll ever see…

As Detective Dan Lockhart is called to a wealthy London street to investigate Natasha’s death, he’s startled by the similarity to a previous case. Noticing the cable-tie restraints and the tiny scratches on Natasha’s wedding finger, Dan already knows what he will find if he looks in her mouth – the metal ball which choked her to death. He knows Natasha isn’t the killer’s first victim and is certain that he will strike again.

Months earlier, Kim Hardy was found in the same position in a run-down hotel across the city – an identical silver ball in her throat. But Kim’s murderer was caught and sent to prison – did they arrest the wrong man? And what connects the two victims? Fearing that he’s dealing with a psychopathic serial killer, Dan calls in psychologist Dr Lexi Green to help him to get into the perpetrator’s mind. Tough and smart, Lexi will stop at nothing to hunt down the man responsible for the deaths.

Then, another body is discovered, just as Lexi finds a clue online leading to the killer. Dan’s team aren’t convinced, but in pushing Lexi away from the investigation, they force her to dig further into the case on her own. Convinced that she’s on to something, she puts herself in unthinkable danger…but can Dan piece together the clues and identify the killer before it’s too late?

Fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Cara Hunter will love this thrilling new series from Chris Merritt. From an explosive start to a heart-stopping finale, you will not want to put this book down!

My Thoughts:

I love to come in to a series right at the start so I can get a feel for the characters, their backgrounds and personalities.  This is a very strong start to the series with Dan Lockhart being called in as the SIO in the murder of Natasha Mayston who has been discovered murdered in her own home, a large steel ball forced down her throat rendering her unable to breath.  He feels there are similarities to another recent murder however the team investigating that case have a man awaiting trial and Dan's superior officer won't give him permission to interview the suspect.

Lockhart's team include DS Maxine Smith, a single mom who is determined to prove her worth on the team. She goes above and beyond to follow her hunches - and doesn't always disclose these activities until after she's discovered evidence to back up her thoughts.  Also on the team is relative newbie Mo Khan who is young, enthusiastic but still wet behind the ears. Lockhart needs to keep him in line or he could become a bit of a liability.

As is often the case, Lockhart has his own demons in his personal life and is seeking counselling to try to make sense of life without his wife who went missing one night and hasn't been seen or heard of since. He's been seeing Dr Lexi Green, an American psychologist in a professional capacity and despite struggling to adjust to sharing his inner thoughts on his personal life he respects her and comes to the conclusion that her input would be helpful in profiling the person responsible for his latest case at work.  His team are less than supportive, many of them not holding much faith in psychological profiling and Lexi feels very much out of her depth as she presents her professional assessment of the type of personal capable of murdering Natasha. She ups her efforts in line with the rest of the team when another body turns up in identical circumstances only a matter of weeks later. She feels she has to prove the value of profiling to the cynical police team. But how can she get them to listen to her?

There are multiple persons of interest in the book and I felt very much part of the investigations as the different officers went about their lines of questioning, analysing each of the suspects and their alibis as events unfolded. This is not a fast paced thriller but a steady police investigation until the climax of the book when I found my heart racing very much faster as the pieces of the mystery suddenly clicked into place and one of the team suddenly found themselves next on the killer's hit list. Would the rest of the team work things out in time to foil the Throat Ripper's master plan?

The author has clearly spent considerable time researching a very unpleasant section of society who hold women in very low regard and are very vocal in their online chatrooms. It is scary to think such groups exist and not only with women as their target group. I will be very interested to see where Chris Merritt takes this series as I feel he will keep things very contemporary as to the types of crime this team will be investigating.  Plus there is the personal side of Lockhart's story - and Maxine Smith has lots more to offer us yet as well. Both officers have proven that they will push boundaries to get results which always makes a series that bit more interesting from a reader's point of view. And will Lexi Green be figuring in any future cases? We will have to wait and see.

I am very much looking forward to the next instalment.

About the Author:

Chris Merritt is a British author whose crime thrillers combine psychology, suspense, and characters you care about.

All his novels are set in London, where he lives. He began writing fiction in 2014, after previous careers as a diplomat, based in Iraq and Jerusalem, and later as a psychologist working with victims and perpetrators of crime. He specialised in treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which sparked his interest in telling stories about how people cope when faced with extreme adversity.

Now he spends most of his time writing novels and drinking coffee while *thinking* about writing novels. When he's not writing, he loves climbing and playing basketball.

Author Social Media Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrCJMerritt

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17558172.Chris_Merritt

Website: www.cjmerritt.co.uk