Stalker on the Levels by David Hodges

Detective Kate Hamblin is called out to an indecent exposure incident at the home of a famous novelist Tamara Callaghan. Then, every copy of her latest’s novel is destroyed at a local bookshop where she recently held a book signing event – thus indicating that someone has a personal vendetta against the author. The flasher decides to visit Tamara again and this is when things take a turn for worse – he’s murdered. By the stalker who keeps an eye on Tamara…

Stalker on the Levels is the ninth book in David Hodges’s Detective Kate Hamblin Police Procedural series and can be read as a standalone.

I have read books where the main character is annoying – but these are the stories that I loved because the annoying character brought about a different angle to the story. I found Kate Hamblin to be one such character – annoying to the core! Unfortunately, in this book, her portrayal ruined the story for me.

Kate is married to a Detective Constable named Hayden. He’s a bit on the plumper side and Kate always makes fun of him – even at work. She calls him names and teases him, trying to bring the worst in him. Honestly, I felt like Hayden should leave her and find someone who respects him for who he is! There’s a huge difference between insulting someone and ‘teasing’ in the name of love. There is no doubt Kate was being downright rude on the chap (or, as she calls him, ‘Sod’) – but she gets annoyed when someone else teases her husband. I know, right!

The story begins with a flashback of a murder that happened years ago. A young woman was out on her daily morning jog when she was pushed off the cliff. Fast forward to the present, famous author Tamara Callaghan is at her home, standing out on the patio when she sees a naked man walking towards her. She rushes to close the door and the man does his ‘work’ at her patio window. The police are called in – Kate arrives at the scene. Kate knows nothing about the author so when she’s invited at a book signing event the next day, she agrees to attend.

At the book signing event, she meets a journalist named Templar. He is curious to know what a police officer is doing at a book signing event. Further down the story, Templar has quite a role to play. The flasher decides to return to Tamara’s house but he’s not aware that someone’s watching him. Before he could react, he’s strangled by the mystery man.

Kate believes she’s better than rest of the detectives and off she goes in search of clues. She is attacked by the mystery man but she doesn’t take a no for an answer. She wants to solve the case – sod Doctor’s orders! UGH! Kate the “know-it-all” and “I-am-the-best-detective” was way too annoying for my liking!

Coming to the mystery behind the ‘mystery man’ and Tamara’s best-kept secret – this did not pique my curiosity. I wasn’t every much impressed with the ending either (Kate, again!) Having said that, (at the time of writing this review) I am the only one on Goodreads who has rated this book 2 stars. So I leave it up to the readers to decide whether they want to give this book a try or not – you never know, you might like it better than I did.

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I received an ARC from Joffe Books in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.

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