I love crime fiction and I've been reading it for years, delighting in the complex tales of cruel, sadistic serial killers, family dramas based on deep, dark secrets, uncovering hidden, unsuspected motives and quests for justice for past wrongs, not to mention the unflinching investigators out to set the world to rights and unmask the villains. I have to admit, during the lockdown, I started to wonder if I had read my fill of detective novels and crime fiction. There are, after all, only so many ways to kill people, even on paper, and the plots started getting too samey, with too many details reminding me of things from other books that I'd read in the past. Had I covered all bases ? Could nothing surprise me any more ? Well, I'm relieved to say, reading Pressure Chamber was just what the doctor ordered. It includes a whole series of shocking, seemingly unrelated crimes and an intriguing investigator with an interesting backstory to boot. Perfect !
The key character in the book is Daphne Dagan, a young female investigator from the Israeli police forensics department who is investigating the case. While this sounds exotic, it should be noted that the author, Nir Hezroni, was born in Jerusalem and now lives with his family near Tel-Aviv. The novel is, in fact, translated from Hebrew.
Daphne is called on to investigate the crime scene of a hit and run that left a medical student dead. When a second medical student is targetted and kidnapped, there are clear links between the two incidents. A few weeks later, four babies are kidnapped from different maternity wards in Tel Aviv and the kidnapper is dubbed 'The Babysitter'. Daphne links these new crimes to the hit and run incidents.
But that's not all she has on her plate. After a busy day at work, she needs the night-time to rest and recover, but sadly, she is prone to a recurring nightmare in which she is the victim of a horrific murder. She starts looking into ways to uncover the past trauma that is coming back to haunt her in her sleep.
It's as intriguing and original as it sounds and some of it is very creepy. If you're looking for one of those books that will keep you up until stupid o' clock, reading "just one more chapter" before you turn out the light, this comes highly recommended!
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP: £8.99
- Publisher : Legend Press (1 Jun. 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 412 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1789559030
- ISBN-13 : 978-1789559033
Disclosure : I received a review copy of the book in order to share my honest opinion.
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