W.D. Jackson-Smart – The Devil’s Mark

‘The Devil’s Mark’ by W.D. Jackson-Smart is the third book in a series featuring DI Daniel Graves and DI Charlie Palmer. I have not had the pleasure of reading the previous books, so I went in ‘cold turkey’, I suppose you could say. This book was fine to be read as a standalone although as always with a series, to get a complete picture of the main characters, it is always best to read them chronologically.

In this book DI Graves has to untangle the meaning of a blood-stained effigy of body parts that are found in a central London park. Symbals that are at the crime scene suggest a connection to the occult. Graves and Palmer start to investigate the act of human sacrifice and the ritual involved. They decide to involve a professor in the field, Charlotte Gooding. Working together they aim to discover a motive. Could this be a killer who believes in the supernatural or even witchcraft?

When another crime scene is discovered there is more blood, more symbols and even out in the open. This seems to be someone who wants their work to be seen by as many people as possible. Graves is on the clock, with pressure mounting to solve this before more crime scenes are discovered. This killer is really happy to make a display for everyone but someone from DI Graves’s past is intent on spilling Graves’s blood….while he attempts to find an occult killer.

A fast-paced horror mixed with police procedural that had me hanging on to every word with a grotesque fascination. A story that is brutal in parts, this killer does not mess about! It definitely made for dark reading.

The back story shows how people can be that twisted it becomes their normality. It is a weird normality though. Both DI Graves and DS Palmer are characters I would love to be friends with. The banter they bounce of each other shows the friendship they have and it gives is a little light reprieve from the darkness surrounding the case. After finishing this book I need to add the first two to my pile of never decreasing books and fill in the bits I am missing! All in all, The Devil’s Mark is a thrilling read that I couldn’t put down I found it that intriguing and one I would recommend if you don’t mind a bit of gore and graphic scenes.

Thanks to Damp Pebbles Blog Tours and Panther Publishing for my copy of the book and my place on the tour today.