Review: Follow the Leader by Mel Sherratt

The premise hooked me quite quickly, and since I'm still in a pretty big Mystery & Thriller mood from reading Never Smile at Strangers earlier this month, I was excited to go into this. Though, I have to admit that I was slightly hesitant because the last two books I read from NetGalley haven't been as enjoyable as I had hoped.

But still, I was really excited to start this because of one small detail...

Publication Date: February 10, 2015

Synopsis:
A man's body is found is a canal, with a plastic magnet in the shape of a E in his pocket. Days later, another body is found, with another letter tucked in her clothing. As the body count rises, DS Allie Shenton and her team must follow the childlike clues to find the killer's next victim. The rules are simple but deadly - to catch the killer, they must follow the leader.

Thoughts:
As I mentioned earlier, I was really intrigued by one specific detail of this book, and that was the eerie clues of magnetic alphabets. I don't know why, but that little detail made me super interested to see what was going to happen in this book and watch the whole thing play out.

I have to say, in the beginning, I wasn't really that interested, but by the second murder, I wanted to find out what the connection was exactly and why the letters were being placed in the victims' clothing.

The whole story is really intriguing and keeps you guessing as to what will happen with the next body. But one thing I did notice here, and with the previous two Mystery & Thriller books I read, is that vulgarity is really common. I get that these are generally written for adults and that swearing and sex is really common in society now, but personally, I'm not a huge fan of such language or activity. In some cases, it actually makes me enjoy the story less because I don't see the point of using a swear word when it doesn't do anything for the book. Not that swearing ever really does anything except seemingly emphasis a statement.

But, that being said, I did really enjoy the book and I'm keeping up with this Mystery & Thriller kick that has been going on since early January.

Just for a moment though, I will say that the ending was a fantastic set up for the next book and I'm really excited for that to come out, even though it likely won't happen for another year or so.

Characters:
The book follows several characters, and there isn't exactly one specific main character as several characters' storylines are explored.

DS Allie Shenton is one of the most frequently visited characters and we often see from her perspective. I did quite like reading about her because her storyline really interested me, though I think that her backstory could have been expanded on a little more.

For the most part, the book switches back and forth between several characters, and talking too much about them would just spoil the book for you, so I'll just keep to a very general mention of the other characters.

I did really like several of the characters, and I didn't find that many of them to be annoying. However, there wasn't much of an attachment to these characters or what was happening to them. Maybe that's because of my age as opposed to the audience that this book is directed at. But I didn't really connect with any of the characters or feel much for them. There was something that happened near the end that made me more intrigued, but it wasn't really a connection or attachment to any particular character.

Overall: 
4 stars and recommended to people who are starting out with Mysteries & Thrillers. I don't think this would be too interesting for people who are more acquainted with the genre as it can come off as predictable. I do think it would be wise to prepare yourself for a fair amount of swearing and mentions of sex though.

Acknowledgements:
Thank you to NetGalley for hosting this on your website, thus giving me a chance to read the book. Thank you also to Thomas & Mercer for putting this book up on NetGalley and approving my request for this book. I am thankful for the chance to read and review this before publication.