CHASING SHADOWS BY ROBERT BRYNDZA

I have tended to prefer Robert Bryndza’s series about PI Kate Marshall over his books about Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster, but I have to say that his latest one about the London police detective is probably the best thing he has done in recent years.

Chasing Shadows, (Raven Street, 5 June 2025), is the ninth book in the Erika Foster series and takes the reader back to the early defining events in the detective’s career. A routine call takes an unexpected twist when Erika arrives on the scene and discovers the body of a woman in an empty flat, with all DNA evidence scrubbed away. When forensics find cocaine residue coating every surface of the ceiling, Erika calls in the drug dogs, which leads her to a mysterious parcel locker on the outside wall of the property. Chasing down the locker’s owner takes Erika back where she never expected to be, staring into the eyes of Jerome Goodman, the drug dealer who murdered her husband and other police officers ten years ago.

Erika arrests Goodman on the spot, but there’s just one problem. His passport and his solicitor say his name is Kieron Bagshaw, and his record is squeaky clean. With top brass demanding she take leave to deal with her PTSD, and even her closest colleagues questioning her sanity, Erika decides to use the time off to do some digging of her own. In the process she uncovers some surprising secrets that make her question what really happened on that day ten years ago.

Chasing Shadows is a fast paced, gripping tale that quickly draws the reader in. The early surprising developments keep you interested, and a secondary timeline, and point of view, from ten years ago efficiently recaps what happened and shows it in a different light. The investigation unfolds in a credible manner, although it does rely on a touch of luck. There are certainly some good surprises, and nicely placed red herrings keep everything uncertain until the end.

Erika can be a prickly character, but Bryndza nicely fleshes her out in this book and her emotional reaction to past events really adds to the book’s tension. In all, I thought that Chasing Shadows was a really strong novel from Bryndza. I had some slight quibbles over the likelihood of processes towards the end of the book, but not enough to stop me from thoroughly enjoying it. Highly recommended for fans of British police novels.

Chasing Shadows is released in the United Kingdom on 5 June 2025. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of the book for review.