Delafield by Katherine V. Forrest is the tenth book in the riveting Kate Delafield Mystery Series.
Death has become Kate Delafield’s closest companion. Danger lurks around every corner and nowhere is safe. Her former LAPD colleagues can’t protect her from a gruesome attack that could happen anytime without warning.
Kate Delafield retired from the LAPD four years ago but a twenty-year old case is coming back to haunt her. At that point in time, she could not deal with another homophobic homicide investigation that reminded her of Dory Quillin, a young lesbian who was murdered at the Nightwood Bar, so Kate passed the case on to a junior detective and allowed her to take the lead. Now her heart is heavy with guilt and shame because she knows that she is responsible for the mishandling of evidence and as a result of that, an innocent woman was wrongfully convicted of murder.
Kate has been doing a lot of soul-searching and she finally understands how the crucial decisions she had made in her personal and professional life have led her to this time and place in the high desert. She just wants to protect everyone who is dear to her heart, especially Aimee, from this threat. There’s no way that Kate can go back in time and undo all the hurt and pain her actions have caused but she is determined to find out who actually killed fifteen-year-old April Shuster.
But unforeseen circumstances and quirky individuals, crop up. She meets new and interesting people and she also comes face to face with a few blasts from her past. And they will change her life in so many wonderful and unexpected ways.
Pros And My Favourite Parts
I’ve been following Kate’s journey ever since I’d read Amateur City ten years ago and I’m still a huge fan of Katherine V. Forrest’s captivating writing. Delafield has the right amount of tension, suspense and light-hearted moments and I felt like I got to know Kate on a deeper level in this book because I had unrestricted access to her innermost thoughts and emotions. I will always have a special place in my heart for Kate because she worked really hard to maintain her sobriety and protect her loved ones while she was trying to correct her past mistakes and deal with all the emotional baggage she’d been carrying around long before she became a LAPD detective.
Even though Delafield is the tenth book in the Kate Delafield Mystery Series, it can be read as a stand-alone because the author has done a fantastic job with filling in all the important bits of information from the previous books.
Cons And Heads Up
There were graphic descriptions of death threats, suicide and murder.
The Conclusion
If you’re in the mood to devour a well-written, poignant and engrossing mystery that features a flawed and totally relatable main character—then you should definitely buy this book, as a matter of fact, you should get all the books in this awesome series!
Excerpt from Delafield by Katherine V. Forrest
“It was a strong case even without her mess-up,” Cameron retorted. “Incriminating diary, motive, testimony…”
She gritted her teeth. He would not let go of his determination to persuade her into absolving herself of any blame. Like everyone else, he had no inkling of her actual culpability in Ellie Shuster’s wrongful conviction. She tossed the note back onto the counter, wishing that instead of giving in to her electric fear when she saw the postmark, the need to immediately share with him this newest and most alarming communication, she’d ripped up the goddamn thing and thrown it to the desert winds. She said flatly, “We put the wrong person on death row. Destroyed her marriage. Took nineteen years from her life.”
“The jury did. It took the Innocence Project—”
“Yes, yes, I know.”
“—getting the case reviewed with new evidence and reneged testimony. Which you had no way of knowing back then.”
How many times did he have to repeat all this? She’d read through the trial transcripts and appeals, examined her copy of the murder book innumerable times, run over it in her mind a thousand more times looking for anything that might have been missed. If Ellie Shuster hadn’t done this crime, who did?
“Joe, I know all this and so does she. It makes no difference. She’s out to have someone else know how it feels to have their life torn up the way we did hers. Feel what it’s like to be on death row.”
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Series
Amateur City
Murder at the Nightwood Bar
The Beverly Malibu
Murder by Tradition
Liberty Square
Apparition Alley
Sleeping Bones
Hancock Park
High Desert
Delafield
Bits and Bobs
ISBN number: 9781935226895
Publisher: Spinsters Ink
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Note: I received a free review copy of Delafield by Katherine V. Forrest. No money was exchanged for this review. When you use our links to buy we get a small commission which supports the running of this site
