The Delegate - Ali Carter

 

About the book

Ex Cumbrian G.P. Charlotte Peterson is a vicious serial killer simmering her way through a life sentence in Rampton High Security Hospital. A sycophantic inmate with Mafia family connections had aided her escape to a murderous New York rampage six months earlier, but Charlotte only managed to actually kill one of the remaining enemies on her list. She therefore needs someone on the outside to complete the job – A Delegate.

Recaptured by D.C.I. Harry Longbridge and D.I. Fran Taylor after flying to the U.S., Charlotte pulls the strings of a vulnerable woman with serious historic mental health challenges of her own. The icing on the cake for Charlotte is that the woman concerned is none other than Harry’s wife, Annie. It feels good – very good.

However, despite initially falling into line believing it will help with her own ‘List,’ Annie develops a growing inner confidence and two powerful women begin mentally circling one another. As Annie covertly pushes forwards with her own plans, the Zandini’s increasingly come to the fore in more ways than one - and Charlotte starts to feel distinctly uneasy….

The Delegate is the third book in the DCI Harry Longbridge series and you'd think that now he and DI Fran Taylor are back from NYC and Charlotte Peterson is locked up again things could settle down for him a little - but that was never really going to happen was it.

Having read the previous novels in the series (which I would suggest you do too - it will make things a lot clearer) it is clear that Peterson will not be stopped by the walls of a High Security Prison/Hospital when it comes to carrying on with her killing spree.

The fact that she is using Longbridge's wife as the titular Delegate to get the job done could have gone either way but thankfully, as we see the character of Annie growing and watch the balance of power slightly shift the story just gets stronger. How does Longbridge cope with this - well, you'll just have to read and find out as I'm trying not to drop any spoilers here.

As a series this just gets better by the book (and it started off excellently) and has put Ali Carter on my Must Buy list of authors

Thanks to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for inviting me onto this tour. Please have a look at the other posts by the bloggers on the tour (below)