Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)

Nine Elms is the first book in a new procedural series by Robert Bryndza. Released 1st Dec 2019 by Amazon on their Thomas & Mercer crime imprint, it's 385 pages and available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book is included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

This is a well written procedural with an engaging but flawed protagonist. The story arc develops slowly at first but the tension ratchets up and careens toward the inevitable denouement. There are some rough spots in the dialogue and main character Kate's interactions with others didn't quite ring true for me in some places. That being said, it -is- very well written and the plotting and narrative  are very well done.

For readers who enjoy modern procedurals, this is a promising start to a new series written by a proven author. I tend to read more classic golden age type mysteries and admit that some of the descriptions and material in this book were a bit over the top for my taste personally (sexual psychopathology, murder and torture of young girls, body horror, discussion of cannibalism, etc). The language is not egregious and there's no direct sexual content. I would definitely call this more of a thriller than a classic murder mystery.

Four stars. I enjoyed it, but it's worth knowing what's in store to at least a general degree before committing.

 Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.