Portraits Of The Dead by John Nicholl.

19 year old Emma Jones is reported missing by her mother. Emma is a student at Cardiff University and is living in a shared house nearby. Detective Inspector Gareth Gravel of West Wales Police is on the case to find Emma, in case she is in danger.

Portraits Of The Dead is told from 4 points of view. Detective Inspector Gareth Gravel, Detective Sergeant Rankin, Emma Jones - the victim and the bad guy. I liked how the story was told from multiple points of view.

I thought Portraits Of The Dead got off to a very good and creepy start. The tension was there and I feared that Emma may not get out of this story alive. However, as this story progressed, my enjoyment slowly and steadily dwindled.

Frustrations began to rise as I progressed through this novel. The police find that Emma has left her flash new phone behind in her shared student house. This gives the story a contemporary feel but then the dates are woven into the plot. May 1998 - but why? These modern fancy, flash smartphones were not around in 1998, which is a problem and I think that new books should be set in the current day. Who would want to buy a new book that is set 20 years ago? Okay, making his story 20 years old allows John Nicholl to ignore smartphones and social media but he could so easily have claimed that Emma chose to be off the grid.

Another problem I had was the use of the fictitious town of Caerystwyth where the police station is that DI Gareth Gravel worked from. The rest of the book included the real locations of Cardiff and real places in Carmarthenshire like Ferryside, Llanelli and Llansteffan. However, Caerystwyth Wood, Trinity Fields, Jobe’s Well Road and Castle Lane, Llansteffan are all fictitious and do not exist. This was very frustrating for me as I have lived in Cardiff since 1991 and for our holidays we rent a Sea View Chalet at the Carmarthen Bay Holiday Resort, near Kidwelly. I love walking my dog along the Gwendraeth and pottering all around Carmarthenshire. I could imagine the scene of Caerystwyth Wood actually taking place at Penybedd Wood, which is a lovely short stroll for Charlie the Pug. Why of why did John Nicholl not use real locations to add value to his novel? It is so blindingly obvious that Caerystwyth should be Carmarthen. It is as obvious as reading Heddlu and straightaway knowing the Welsh organisation involved - and I was born in England.

I thought the characterisation within Portraits Of The Dead was fair. I thought the plot was okay. I did like the explanation of the bad guy’s motives from his point of view. However, I feel this novel does drag on a little and there is nothing special about it.

At the end I felt a little cheated, crime thrillers are generally solved by the police but not this one. The ending did make me smile though!

I thought Portraits Of The Dead was an okay, 3 star read. It passes the time but I could not recommend it to anyone. This is the first of a proposed series but I shall not be bothering if John Nicholl writes another book.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Bloodhound Books for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.