My second and final read for –

Reading Ireland Month 2025

You can find out about RIM2025 at Cathy’s website. You’ll also find lots of inspiration on what to read.

The Killing Sense

Danger is closer than you think…

Danger is closer than you think…

Book blurb

Single Mum Kate Wilde has escaped an abusive marriage and hasn’t had a holiday in years, so when she wins a five-day trip to Paris to learn about perfume – in a competition she can’t remember entering – it’s a dream come true. Or is it?

Almost as soon as she arrives, Kate’s ex texts with evidence that he’s in Paris too. Kate can feel she’s being watched, and she’s sure someone has been in her apartment. Then she discovers that there’s a killer in the city focusing on red headed women like her. And his kill count is rising.

Who should she fear the most?

All Kate’s senses are on alert. But can her instincts keep her safe?

My thoughts

Kate Wilde has won a trip to Paris! It includes the travel, a place to stay and a perfume course. It’s just what she and her friend Trish had talked and dreamt about so many years before. She has had a rough time but finally things seem to be changing for the better. This trip is the perfect way of saying ‘hello’ to her bright new future. With her daughter, Hanna, being safely left with her sister, Orna, Kate is looking forward to seeing Paris and taking part in the perfumery class.

The setting in Paris is a wonderful part of this story it made me recall my only visit there and made me want to go back, so much has changed since then, to see all the places I remember and all the places mentioned in the book.

I loved the storytelling of perfume and the parts of the book that took place on the course were fascinating and I really enjoyed them.

On the journey over Kate is seated across from Daniel who strikes up a conversation with her. He’s in Paris to buy a perfume bottle at auction for his aunt Lillian who wants it as a wedding gift for Daniel’s niece. Is this the beginnings of a friendship or maybe just two strangers passing a journey convivially together?

Once Kate is in Paris her joy of being there enjoying the sights and treasures that Paris offers is tempered by text messages she starts to receive from Erik, her ex. Her fears are raising up but she is determined that she won’t give in to them.

Agathe is a young woman living in Paris along with Sandrine and Roland. Agathe is worried when Sandrine goes missing. Not sure what to do she turns to her Uncle Gabriel, at the Paris Heure, who sets Agathe to work researching into missing women. Although the link of red hair is tenuous, yes, Agathe finds more connections – the time of year and where the women had gone missing – he sets her to work with his crime editor Max. He has been working on a more recent story, they may be linked and then Sandrine! Now Gabriel wants them to find out if there is not only a kidnapper but a murderer at work and has been for twenty years!

We have another commentator through the story which brings a mysterious and chilling edge to the story.

As the threads of this story are pulled together will Kate survive this intricately staged plot that has brought her to Paris for a reason she would never have imagined? Can Agathe and Max uncover the truth in time? And, if they can, who will help them stop this heinous criminal from getting at least one more victim?

Sam Blake weaves a wonderful story bringing various elements together in a tense finale that is both thrilling and shocking.

I can’t resist a good crime fiction story and Sam Blake writes really good ones. The Killing Sense is a wonderful book with terrific characters, a beautiful setting with great plotting and a compelling narrative. It’s an absolutely fantastic book.

I’d love to read more of these characters whether that’s likely I don’t know but Sam Blake is most definitely an author I look forward to reading more of.

Book: Purchased

Previously read: Three Little Birds

Information

Published: Corvus (2 Jan. 2025) | 376 pp | ASIN:B0D8K1MY53

Buy: Sam Blake | Hive | AmazonSmileUK | Bookshop.org (affiliate link) | Your local bookshop | Your local library | Atlantic Books

Author: SAM BLAKE HAS BEEN WRITING FICTION SINCE HER HUSBAND SET SAIL ACROSS THE ATLANTIC FOR EIGHT WEEKS AND SHE HAD AN IDEA FOR A BOOK.

SAM, ORIGINALLY FROM ST. ALBANS IN HERTFORDSHIRE, NOW LIVES IN IRELAND, AT THE FOOT OF THE WICKLOW MOUNTAINS IN A 200-YEAR-OLD-COTTAGE WITH SEVERAL CATS AND AN OCCASIONAL POLTERGEIST WHO MOVES THINGS AT THE MOST INCONVENIENT MOMENTS. HER DEBUT NOVEL, LITTLE BONES, LAUNCHED THE CAT CONNOLLY TRILOGY AND WAS A RUNAWAY BESTSELLER. 

SHE MOVED AWAY FROM POLICE PROCEDURALS TO WRITE PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS FOR CORVUS ATLANTIC, THE FIRST, KEEP YOUR EYES ON ME, WENT STRAIGHT TO NO 1 IN JANUARY 2020. ALL SAM’S BOOKS HAVE BEEN BESTSELLERS AND SHE HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR IRISH CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR THREE TIMES. 

SAM IS ALSO WRITING YA CRIME FOR GILL BOOKS AND SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENED LAST NIGHT, HER YA DEBUT  WAS PUBLISHED IN MAY 2023. SOMETHING’S ABOUT TO BLOW UP IS PUBLISHED BY GILL BOOKS & BOLINDA AUDIO IN MAY 2024.

ALL BOOKS

RELEASED AS A WORLDWIDE DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE, ‘HIGH PRESSURE’ IS A BONUS SPIDERWEB BOOK LINKING SAM’S ADULT SERIES AND STANDALONE BOOKS. JOIN HER READERS’ CLUB AND YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT FOR FREE!

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CHECK OUT SAM’S WRITING COURSES WHERE SHE TAKES YOU THROUGH HER WRITING PROCESS TO GUIDE YOU TO WRITE YOUR OWN BESTSELLER, AND HER ONLINE WRITERS GROUP, WRITERS INK WHERE WRITERS AT ALL STAGES CAN FIND COACHING, MENTORING AND CRITIQUE IN A SUCCESSFUL AND SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY.

IN APRIL 2024 SAM BLAKE WAS APPOINTED CHAIR OF THE SOCIETY OF AUTHORS (SOA) BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

WEBSITE: SAM BLAKE | FOLLOW ON SOCIAL @SAMBLAKEBOOKS.