Swansong (A DI Nick Dixon Novel)

By Damien Boyd

4/5 Stairs

While the fourth in the DI Nick Dixon series, Swansong is my first outing with this detective.

I needed to suspend reality just a bit to stay on board with this story at the beginning. Nick makes a huge leap early on in the book, linking the murder of Isobel Swan to the mysterious disappearance of his girlfriend 17 years earlier. There really was no evidence to connect the crimes, other than the two girls looked virtually identical and they both were sixth years in similar boarding schools.

Once you accept this premise, the book is a fast-paced page turner. Dixon’s past merges nicely with the present case as he goes undercover in the boarding school as a trainee teacher getting two weeks of work experience before the term ends. (Being an American, I wondered does a two week stint at a boarding school in England really count towards teaching experience?)

Looking back, I’m not sure if enough clues were dropped for the armchair detective to correctly deduce the murderer, but still a fun ride.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.