THE DEVIL'S SMILE by Daniel Sellers

 4* Decent, if not the most nailbiting. Took me a while to get into it because of when its set, 30 years ago.

I'm not sure if this is a standalone or the 2nd in a series, as the female lead and  male character have history, but there's no backstory to be concerned with, just a not-bad tale where I didn't foresee the baddie that got revealed. Were they plausible? Yes. Did the tale have a feeling if danger? No, despite the opening that did pack a punch. That part of the tale wasn't the main arc of the storyline, and sadly, once the bad guy got caught, not enough got explained.

The other part of the tale was a bit slow amd steady, with a Miss Whiplash type of reveal that should've taken down more individuals than it did, and with a certain upstanding-but-too-uptight character deserving more page-time. It lacked excitement for me, perhaps because it wasn't a police procedural in the true sense. Still, it was very readable.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Allison amd Busby Limited for my reading pleasure.

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