Shockingly I started the DI Gravel series at book number two! It was actually really good (as far as I can remember). I definitely remember liking DI Gravel as a character. Like I said in the title though, I’m not sure he’s great as an investigator. I don’t think he actually solved the crimes in the second book, and I don’t think he actually solved the crimes in this first book either.
The bad dude kidnaps a college student named Emma and keeps her a prisoner in his basement and tortures her. There were apparently five ladies before her, and the “portraits of the dead” hang on the walls in the torture chamber.
DI Gravel is assigned the task of finding her and bringing her home safely. He doesn’t actually do that. One of his coworkers ends up talking to the bad guy a few times and gets a funny feeling about him. Spoiler alert **** Emma escapes eventually and kills the bad guy, so nobody figures it out, but she still wins. I did not love this book. This one get like 2.5 stars from me.
OK so this one is book three in the DI Gravel series. The story is a little bit different, because it directly involves Gravel’s daughter. She accepts a job at a lawyer’s office, and he’s apparently a psychotic lady killer. Like literally.
The murderer falls in love with his daughter, or I guess becomes obsessed with her, because he can’t really love anyone aside from himself. Gravel is hunting for this serial killer because he killed a bunch of other women already.
Of course he wants to dress up all the girls like his mother and then rape and strangle them.
I can’t really remember how this one ended, but I feel like Gravel didn’t figure it all out. I don’t know if I’m going to read any more of these books though, because they all involve rape, torture, murder, and imprisonment of women. Surely there are other topics to write about! I think this one was about 2 stars.