Made to Be Broken by Rebecca Bradley

A rising death toll.   A city in panic.

A young mother is found dead in her home with no obvious cause of death. As DI Hannah Robbins and her team investigate, it soon becomes clear that the woman is the first in a long line of murders by poison.

With the body count climbing, and the city of Nottingham in social meltdown, the team finds themselves in a deadly race against a serial killer determined to prove a point.

And Hannah finds herself targeting an individual with whom she has more in common than she could possibly know

I was thrilled when Rebecca Bradley sent me a very early copy of Made to Be Broken, her follow up to Shallow Waters. I know that many authors have doubts over their second novel but in my opinion she has nothing to worry about. You could probably read the two books out of sequence but they are closely linked so I would advise reading them in order.

Hannah and her team are struggling to cope after events at the end of the first book and Hannah is still recovering from injuries received. But as well as coping with what happened they are also under pressure to quickly solve a series of sudden deaths that are occurring throughout Nottingham. The reader knows who the murderer is from the beginning but not the reasons.

When I was reading I was wondering how much of Rebecca is present in Hannah, if I hadn’t have known that she used to be in the police I would have suspected it due to the level of behind the scenes knowledge. She doesn’t just tell you what the police do to get a result but also how and why. Media also shows its ugly side, every time I read a novel where they feature I’m reminded of why I never read a newspaper.

With regard to the actual killings I found them very believable and found myself being very cautious carrying out what was a usually an everyday event. The reasons why were slightly different but worked and showed how a life changing event affects people in different ways.

One of the strongest points of the novel was how close the team were. They all were deeply affected by earlier events, some had secrets and issues but they all were very close and refused to give into pressure to give up on a friend who was struggling.

A follow up that doesn’t disappoint.