Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Storm Publishing, and author Sally Rigby for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

The Camborne Killings is the fourth book in author Sally Rigby’s Cornwall Murder Mystery series. I hadn’t read the previous three books when I received this as an advanced reader copy. I read this in a little less than 48 hours, and was not disappointed.

Detective Lauren Pengelly and DS Matt Price are called to a grisly murder scene in a barn. The victim is a retired police officer. Next to her body is a note with “ten green bottles.” The saying is from a children’s nursery rhyme and after a second body is discovered with “nine green bottles” on a note near it, they are worried that they have a serial killer on their hands who targets police.

When one of the team members is injured, Matt brings in a friend from his earlier years at a different precinct who is a whizz at investigating on the internet. At first, there’s tension there, but she soon proves her worth to the team. Her research soon has them following leads within the police themselves, uncovering decades-old corruption at the highest levels.

The Camborne Killings is a great police procedural. Lauren and Matt are a great team and work well together. I didn’t think the research online was that particularly hard, but maybe that’s because I’m used to searching for information on the internet. If there’s one complaint I have, it’s that the investigation relies a little too much on modern technology. At one point, Lauren complains that not having CCTV footage or DNA leaves them with nothing to go on. It wasn’t that long ago when that technology didn’t even exist and crimes still managed to get solved.

Other than that, though, I really loved the story. The characters are well-written and behave in a way consistent with being a police officer, even when their personal lives bleed over into the investigation. The pace is great as the story evolves and feels quite natural. They must tread carefully as the investigation points higher and higher among the police, and do so without it feeling forced. The politics of doing this is well-depicted, as others in authority try to keep their hands clean in case everything goes wrong, leaving Lauren and Matt to take the heat if that happens.

This is a good book to take along with you for some easy reading that will capture your attention. I’m planning to go back and check out the rest of this series after reading this. Sally Rigby has a terrific universe with the characters here and I look forward to more of their adventures.

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