The Night Stalker succeeds as one of the best thrillers I've read in a long time. While Robert Bryndza's first novel in the DCI Erika Foster series, The Girl In The Ice was enjoyable, you don't need to read it first to dive into Stalker - but you'll want to. The characters he introduced are featured to advantage here with fuller back stories and relationships that will keep you turning the pages.
DCI Erika Foster is called to the scene on a hot summer night. A doctor has been suffocated in his home - was it the recent ex-wife? or one of a string of recent rent boys? Whomever it was, there was no break-in, they were already inside. A few days later, a top TV presenter dies in the same way. A pattern of serial killing emerges when someone Erika knows becomes the third victim, this time more brutal and as a reader their identity was one of those great shocks! The victims are all single successful men so that answers my question of where is the thriller that doesn't victimize women. As a heatwave covers London, the stalker realizes Erika is on her trail and begins to taunt her, slowly closing in.
Of course, by page 250 Erika has pushed her investigation a little too far - and she's off the case! Now a civilian, she has to work outside the police system to identify and trap the killer. As we follow the case, we also follow the stalker, hearing her reasoning and knowing her next move. This time, DCI Foster's team of DI Moss, Chief Superintendant Marsh, and Isaac Strong the forensic pathologist are given personal stories that weave in and out of the investigation. I can't remember a thriller that is as well balanced and tightly plotted with no lag - great characters you care about, a focus on detection rather than violence - heads and tails above many thrillers I have read.
A page turner, that turned a regular police series into a must read, and for fans of this genre, highly recommended.
My other reviews for Robert Bryndza:
The Girl In The Ice (Erika Foster #1)
2016 / Tradeback / 390 pages
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