Fatal Witness by Robert Brynaza
This is the best book I’ve read this year. There’s nothing even comparative. Fatal Witness by Robert Brynaza is another in the Erika Foster series and it’s a cracking and compelling masterpiece that can be read out of sequence and as a standalone.
If you have read none of the Erika Foster books before, don’t worry, because any mention of previous cases or backstory is explained effortlessly by the author, and these previous plots do not hog the limelight in the fresh cases.
In Erika Foster, we see a highly skilled and experienced detective with a fearless and no nonsense attitude when it comes to solving cases assigned to her. Erika’s husband (no spoilers here because it’s mentioned in every book) was a police officer who lost his life on the job.
Throughout the series, we see Erika’s character transform as she learns to cope with her past and all the unpleasantness that came / comes with it. Just like Harry Bosch, Erika has her demons, and she’s determined to overcome them.
But she’s not superhuman. She’s not solving cases because the criminals just fall into her lap or decide to just give up. I’ve read books where the plot construct falls apart after a few chapters, or too many red herrings are introduced and it becomes boring.
Not so with the Erika Foster books. This is the seventh in the series and…WOW!…what a cracking read. From start to finish. I expected nothing else, but this book was beyond my expectations.
Barely three pages in and Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster has stumbled her way into a new murder mystery of an actor trying to make ends meet by producing her own podcasts. The murder is told by the victim giving little in the way of any clues.
Fatal Witness gallops along with many old and new characters turning up or added to Erika’s life. Missing from previous books is a point of view from the murderer and the story is more or less told by Erika.
I found every new character introduced to be believable and detailed in such a way they slipped right in to the story’s fabric. There are a few red herrings thrown into the mix, and the murderer’s identity is kept back until almost the end.
This is another tightly woven and mystery thriller that doesn’t hark back to previous books much and the few instances in Fatal Witness does so is when previous cases or relationships are mentioned for necessity rather than for padding.
Fatal Witness by Robert Brynaza rubs shoulders with books by Gillian Flynn, Michael Connolly (specifically the Harry Bosch because those are the ones I’ve read most from this author), and James Patterson (maybe earlier Alex Cross books rather than the later ones).
It’s 5/5 from me.
Check out my other Erika Foster reviews, including Deadly Secrets (Book #6). I’ve also reviewed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (more suspenseful than the movie, although both were good).
Although I’ve read all the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connolly, there are no reviews on this site but I read – and liked –The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly (a Lincoln Lawyer novel).
