It’s hard to escape a brutal past. A vicious killer is on the loose. Victims targeted include an academic and members of Edinburgh’s high society. 

When the Murder Investigation Team find out that the killer is connected to her past, DS Jane Renwick is banished to the side-lines and forced to look on as the manhunt ramps up at a ferocious pace.

#TheFirstCut @valeriepenny @Zooloo’s Book Tours @zooloo2008 #ZooloosBookTours #blogtour

Has someone from Jane’s birth family returned to haunt her? Is one of her relatives involved? Where will the killer strike next? 

This gripping police procedural is set in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The exciting novel is the first in Val Penny’s new series of Scottish thrillers.

My Review

Having read all three novels in the DI Hunter Wilson Edinburgh Crime Mysteries, I was looking forward to a new thriller featuring DS Jane Renwick, who we have already met many times. We don’t see Hunter in this book, but we do see Jane’s wife Rachael, Tim Myerscough (my favourite character) and his now girlfriend Gillian, Bear and Mel and lots of the others from the force.

There’s still a lot of banter in this one, a bit more swearing and constant tea and coffee, cakes and donuts. In fact the amount of hot drinks they partake in is enough to flood the police station and it did make me laugh.

But on to the story itself. Edinburgh has a serial killer on the loose. He or she (though apparently we are told that it is most likely a ‘he’ as there have only been four female serial killers in the UK and none of them in Scotland) has so far targeted ‘an academic and members of Edinburgh’s high society’. The victims appear to have nothing in common, except the women used the same fashionable hairdresser, an expensive cleaning firm, and a dog grooming parlour. All the victims had also registered with an online dating society called Alone in a Crowd. But why would that get them killed? There had to be more.

In the meantime, we have learnt a lot about Jane’s traumatic past. Having been removed by a social worker from her neglectful, abusive, drug-addled parents, she was separated from her siblings, but there is something in her DNA that might link her to the killer.

Another fast-paced, exciting read from this author, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the Jane Renwick series called A Fighting Chance.

Many thanks to @zooloo2008 for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the Author

Val Penny has an Llb degree from Edinburgh University and her MSc from Napier University. She has had many jobs including hairdresser, waitress, banker, azalea farmer and lecturer but has not yet achieved either of her childhood dreams of being a ballerina or owning a candy store. Until those dreams come true, she has turned her hand to writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and novels.

Val is an American author living in SW Scotland. She has two adult daughters of whom she is justly proud and lives with her husband and their cat.

Follow her at:
Twitter : https://twitter.com/valeriepenny
Instagram : http://www.instagram.com/valerieepenny
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Authorvalpenny
Website : http://www.valpenny.com

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122788545-the-first-cut
Buy Links – https://geni.us/WAYcoj