Investigating a cold case can be murder: Prey by Vanda Symon #bookreview #Prey #SamShephard

On her first day back from maternity leave, Detective Sam Shephard is thrown straight into a cold-case investigation – the unsolved murder of a highly respected Anglican Priest in Dunedin.
The case has been a thorn in the side of the Police hierarchy, and for her boss it’s personal.
With all the witness testimony painting a picture of a dedicated church and family man, what possible motive could there have been for his murder?
But when Sam starts digging deeper into the case, it becomes apparent someone wants the sins of the past to remain hidden. And when a new potential witness to the crime is found brutally murdered, there is pressure from all quarters to solve the case before anyone else falls prey.
But is it already too late… ?
Dark, emotive and thought-provoking, Prey is a chilling, sophisticated thriller that cements Vanda Symon’ s position as the new `Queen of New Zealand Crime´.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hi and welcome to my review of Prey!

Prey is the sixth (when did that happen?!) Sam Shephard novel and I, for one, was thrilled to be back in my favourite New Zealand town with my favourite detective. While I’m all for reading series in the correct order, I’m sure you could read this one without prior knowledge, and there are no spoilers either. You’d be missing out, though, just saying.

Boy, has Sam come a long way since we first met her in Overkill! But some things never change, her sass, her sarcasm, her friendship with Maggie… and the fact that there is no love lost between her and her boss DI Johns. Fresh from maternity leave, The Boss has decided that the way she’ll get back into things is by investigating, and hopefully solving, a cold case involving the murder of a priest.

Sam is nothing if not tenacious, so obviously she throws herself into this case with everything she’s got. Even if going back to work with a baby at home is no walk in the park. But as soon as she whips the lid of this unsolved murder, things start to get messy, even leading to another murder. And one thing’s for sure: this case won’t put her in The Boss’s good graces.

Going back to Dunedin is always a treat, this time was no different. Prey shows us a somewhat more vulnerable Sam, adjusting to her new role as a mum in combination with a stressful and demanding job, but the emphasis is still firmly on the police investigation. Which, I’m not ashamed to admit, I did not manage to figure out before all was revealed. For a second there, I was amazed that one of my theories had panned out (in terms of culprit, not motive), but no, Vanda Symon just had me hoodwinked 🙄😂

Prey is another great addition to a fantastic police procedural series and I’m already looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Prey is out now in paperback and digital formats. Get it from Orenda Books here.

Massive thanks to Orenda Books for the digital proof. All opinions are my own.