Book review: Cover Your Tracks by Claire Askew

Having really enjoyed the first one, I started this under the mistaken impression that it was the second in the Helen Birch series; turns out it’s actually the third, and I’ve missed one. Seems like I missed some pretty important stuff, too.  So, that needs sorting asap.

Anyway aside from some stuff in Helen’s personal life, it didn’t affect my ability to follow the plot. When a man walks into her Edinburgh police station to report his elderly parents missing and demand the police investigate, DI Birch doesn’t initially take it too seriously - after all, Robertson Bennet admits he’s been estranged from them for many years. But it soon becomes clear that there’s far more to the story than meets the eye, and a potential link to a number of unsolved cases, as well as serious concerns about the well-being of one individual...

I loved the plot, the Edinburgh setting, and the characters of Helen and her DC Amy Kato, who both go above and beyond in their quest to uncover the truth. The story is quite hard hitting and emotional at times, and the last few pages had me in tears.

(I knew as soon as I heard one person’s name who they were - but as it was near the end and revealed a page later, it wasn’t exactly a spoiler!)

Great read, and I’m now off to catch up with the one I missed.