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Die With Me

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Elena Forbes's "Die with Me" opens in a gloomy London churchyard, where the inscription on a tombstone reads "How short is life. How soon comes death." In this dour setting, a mysterious man has arranged a tryst with a fourteen-year-old girl. They have planned a do-it-yourself-wedding ceremony, but instead of going on a honeymoon, they plan to commit suicide and be together forever in the hereafter. What the innocent teenager does not realize is that "Tom," which is what her supposed bridegroom calls himself, is a fraud. He has no intention of committing suicide, but he does enjoy sending women to their deaths--alone.

Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia, Detective Sergeant Sam Donovan, and the rest of the murder team set out to find a sadist who has conducted this twisted courtship ritual with more than one lonely and depressed female. Tartaglia has been feeling a bit down himself. His boss and close friend, DCI Trevor Clarke, lies in a coma after crashing his motorbike, and the prognosis is grim. With Clarke out of commission, Detective Superintendent Clive Cornish names Tartaglia acting Senior Investigating Officer. Adding to his misery, Tartaglia still has feelings for pathologist Fiona Blake, whom he dumped when he learned of her engagement to another man. Unfortunately, he and Blake still have to work together, and this makes for some awkward and embarrassing encounters. Meanwhile, Sam Donovan carefully hides her attraction to Mark, who is "bloody gorgeous." She has accepted the fact that they are "good mates" who have an effective working relationship. There is no time for romance when you are working day and night, including weekends, trying to catch a serial killer.

Tracking down "Tom" proves to be an exercise in futility. The man is a chameleon and an expert at disguising his appearance and intentions. There are few witnesses and no useful forensic evidence. When the scope of the investigation widens and details are leaked to the press, Cornish puts DCI Carolyn Steele in charge of the inquiry. Tartaglia resents Steele and loathes her former lover, Patrick Kennedy, whom she brings in as a Behavioural Investigative Analyst (psychological profiler).

Forbes has written a fast-paced and skillfully constructed police procedural with an intriguing mix of well-delineated characters. Although Mark Tartaglia is a bit arrogant and aggressive, he is a dedicated cop whose hunches and hard work frequently pay off. Sam Donovan puts in long hours with few complaints, but she sorely misses having a life outside of work. DCI Carolyn Steele is a strong and determined woman who does her best to crack the case of the "Bridegroom Killer," but she is frustrated at her lack of progress and is repelled when she begins receiving a series of threatening emails, apparently from the villain whom they are seeking. The criminal, whom the author introduces early on, is a standard issue psychopath who has an uncanny ability to elude the authorities. Forbes includes some red herrings to muddy the waters a bit, and concludes with the requisite surprise ending, which will not come as a huge shock to alert readers. However, she is careful not to tie up too many loose ends, since a sequel is already in the works. Most readers will be eager to learn what happens next to Tartaglia and company. "Die with Me" is an auspicious and entertaining debut novel.

To my mind, one of the most important aspects of whether an ongoing mystery series succeeds or fails is if readers are, ultimately, just as compelled by the inner struggles and interpersonal relationships among its protagonists as they are by the mystery plot itself. After all, these police officers and detectives are the ones readers will have to spend time with, book after book. If they're not interesting, what's the point? Based on her first novel, promising new author Elena Forbes is one mystery writer who agrees with me. Featuring not only a charismatic, elusive serial killer but also a complex cast of investigators, each of whom carries his or her own compelling story, DIE WITH ME is a first-class introduction to what I can only hope will be a first-rate series.

At the center of the investigation is a mysterious killer named "Tom," a charming, handsome stranger who engages in suicide pacts with young, emotionally vulnerable women. When they meet to kill themselves, only one of them ends up dying --- usually drugged by Tom and hurled to fall to her death. As for Tom, he walks away, emotionally charged by the act of committing murder and already plotting to find his next victim.

Assigned to the case is London detective Mark Tartaglia, a jaded investigator who has been trying to cope with the facts that his superior officer is in a coma and has been replaced by Carolyn Steele, an attractive, confident but sometimes abrasive investigator who is a little too close to the psychological profiler who has been assigned to the case, a pompous jerk with whom Tartaglia has clashed on a previous case. He is also sorting out his feelings about medical examiner Fiona Blake, with whom he had a one-night stand weeks ago.

Tartaglia's partner, Samantha (Sam) Donovan, has picked up on Tartaglia and Blake's attraction for one another --- and she's trying not to let her own disappointment over these developments cloud her work on the case. A sharp investigator, Donovan is also single and lonely --- a combination that might lead to heartache...or worse.

Rounding out the staff of investigators are several other secondary characters, each of whom adds his or her own personality and perspective to the problem at hand. Even as the officers run into a series of brick walls, red herrings and missed opportunities as they attempt to track down Tom, readers are drawn into not only the search for the killer but also into the behind-the-scenes intrigues and conflicts that develop during the investigation.

For those who, as I did, get drawn up in these characters' lives and work, there's good news. Forbes skillfully combines an open-ended narrative with just enough closure to satisfy ardent mystery fans. Given the number of unanswered questions, though, not to mention the ominous, forward-looking ending, it's clear that Forbes intends to explore her compelling cast of characters in what promises to be a gripping ongoing series. I can't wait for the next one.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Bringing the wet and chilly streets of London to life, author Elena Forbes, in her debut suspense novel Die With Me, introduces a crack group of police investigators who are called upon to investigate a series of suspect suicides in the West London suburb of Barnes.

The novel begins with a meeting in a neglected church where an older man meets a teenage girl and where, in the cold and wintry light of the evening, he promises to her that "we're in this together, just you and I." Frantically lapping up his words about love and about death, and also opening a veritable floodgate of confession and neediness, this unidentified man can barely contain himself when this young girl finally becomes his.

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia is set adrift after his boss and friend Trevor Clark has been hospitalized after a motorcycle accident. Stretched out in bed and in a coma and obviously out of action for the foreseeable future, Trevor can do little to assuage Mark's insecurities at becoming the acting Senior Investigating Officer. But before he can even stop to take a breath, Mark is called, together with his trusted colleague Sam Donovan, to the scene of a suspicious death.

The victim is a fourteen-year-old girl by the name of Gemma Kramer, who supposedly fell from the organ gallery inside St, Sebastian's church two days ago. At first, Ealing CID initially assumed it was an accident or a suicide, as they didn't find anything suspicious. After a pretty cursory forensic exam of the ground floor, the crime scene was released.

But just after the church was cleaned up and re-opened for business, a witness suddenly materialized out of the woodwork saying she saw the girl going into the church with a man a couple of hours before her body was found and they were clearly seen kissing outside. Upon closer examination, the whole incident seems to have been carefully prepared with lit candles and burning incense, and then the girl had fallen to her death while the man suddenly disappeared.

Seeking answers, Mark turns to the local Pathologist and ex-girlfriend Fiona Blake, who after running a full toxic analysis tells him that Gemma had traces of alcohol and GHB in her system even although there appears to be no sexual motivation for the crime. Mark, however, is certain that Gemma's death was no accident, especially when Fiona tells him that a lock of the girl's hair had been cut off and pulled out at the root, as though it had been sliced right off at the scalp.

Working diligently, Mark, Sam, and their team start checking the Coroners' records for suicides of young women in London over the last couple of years, even though Donovan is sure there is no grounds so far to think Gemma's death was anything other than a one-off. Soon they uncover the records of two other girls who met a similar fate: Ellie Best and Laura Beneditti, both under twenty and who were both severely depressed.

Suddenly a portrait develops of a terrifying new serial killer who is preying on the young, the naïve and the easily suggestible, vulnerable teenage girls who feel as though there is very little hope and very little to live for. And then there's the thirty-something Marion Spear, who came down from the North to work as an estate agent, in Ealing and who reportedly fell to her death from the roof of a car park.

The way Marion died was so different to the other three; there was no suicide note, and the local CID investigation into Spear's death had been cursory at best with the verdict again accidental death. Even though she only lived a few blocks away from where Gemma was killed, she just doesn't fit the victim profile. On the day she had died she had taken a client to visit a flat, after that nobody saw her again and the flat was quite close to the car park where she fell.

Mark is positive that Marion's age and state of mind are important considerations in a case that is threatening to disrupt the cohesiveness of his unit. When DCI Carolyn Steele arrives to head up the case and replace Clark, much to Mark's annoyance, she turns to the cocky forensic pathologist Patrick Kennedy for advice. Self seeking and arrogant so unashamedly sure of himself, Kennedy is only too prepared to dismiss Marion Speer's death so categorically.

Mark is positive that Marion Spear could be an early victim. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, and unless Mark and Donavon can establish the connection between Laura, Ellie and Gemma, the killer will strike probably again. When Steele starts receiving emails, a portrait begins to emerge of a cold and manipulative killer who is organized with a grandiose sense of self-worth and who is incapable of feeling empathy, guilt or remorse.

A page-turner from the outset, Forbes' police investigators are compelling characters as she details all of their insecurities and flaws as they battle petty departmental politics while also racing against time to catch the killer. When the suspects gradually line-up, all eyes point towards the bookshop owner Harry Angel, the man whom Marion Spear had been showing a flat and the last person to known to have seen her alive, even though there is no apparent motive and nothing to link Angel to the crime scene.

The cold light of day can indeed certainly be ruthless and unforgiving and the author bathes her novel in a sort of eerie and brittle glow, the descriptions of rain-driven streets of London adding much to the suspenseful atmosphere. As the story races towards a heart-stopping climax on this preternaturally harsh London winter, Mark, Sam and Carolyn discover that the enemy, the murderer of these poor young women, is hiding just where they least expect, forever lurking in the unlikeliest of places, ready to strike just when they least expect. Mike Leonard October 07.

This is a debut novel for Forbes. I picked it up at the airport bookshop partially because of all the reasonably good blurbs on the back cover. The Literary Review liked it. The Times liked it. I'll go along with those worthies. I liked it. I didn't love it, but I liked it.

The story features a string of murders of vulnerable young women. At first glance, they appear to be suicides. It is only by chance that the police realize that there seems to be a serial killer involved. D.I. Mark Tartaglia is assigned to the case. Tartaglia is too good looking and aggressive for his own good (and for his career's own good). The case causes him to reexamine a number of relationships (both romantic and otherwise) that he thought he well understood.

I did not find the novel terribly memorable, and I was at least a teeny bit disenchanted with the ending. This said, an admirable airplane book. It was precisely the ticket for helping the time pass by.

I won't try to match the three excellent detailed reviews already posted. I'll just add that I was in a rush last week when I stopped by the library, and hurriedly chose four promising-sounding (from the jacket blurbs) books from the "New Mysteries" shelf.

The first three I read a few pages of and put right back in the tote bag to return. "Die With Me" I just finished, and it held my rapt attention from first page to last. Good atmosphere, believable characters, perfect plausibility, seamlessly literate writing.

I was astonished to learn that it's a first novel. I hope Ms. Forbes has many more in her. I'll be watching for them.

Det. Insp. Mark Tartaglia and his murder team are at a dilapidated church where a very young teenage girl died by falling from a high balcony. Despite clues pointing to suicide, they treat the death as a possible murder because a witness saw the girl meeting and kissing an obviously much older man before entering the church with him. The girl had a "date rape" drug in her blood and someone had removed a lock of her hair. There is also a weird series of e-mails with "Tom," in which he seemed to be playing with her mind and pushing her to die with him. The review of similar deaths ordered by Tartaglia quickly turns up two supposed suicides of young girls, both in churches and both with circumstances quite similar to Tartaglia's new case. The police suspect a serial killer is at work.

Ironically this causes Tartaglia's replacement as senior officer. His mentor and usual chief, Det. Chief Insp. Clarke, is in a coma after an accident and the Superintendant is afraid to take direct responsibility for a high profile case. He brings in DCI Carolyn Steele to run the case and Tartaglia is angry. Steele seems as hard as her name, but she is insecure enough to hire a very prominent profiler, one that Tartaglia knows and mistrusts, with good reason. The stage is set for poor communication at the top of the case. Soon Steele thinks Tartaglia is undermining her, and Tartaglia finds her unsupportive.

Indeed one of the main themes of the book is how hard it is for people to communicate honestly and accurately. Everyone is blinded by their own wants, needs and expectations. This causes things to remain unsaid or to be politely phrased, always obliterating meaning. Author Forbes seems to think that communications across gender lines are especially prone to fail. The case breaks when Tartaglia manages finally to put some pretty straightforward facts together.

The book is quite well written, and the interactions of the characters are all too believable. The procedural aspects of the story are convincing, including the psychology of the characters. The book is very entertaining, but its view of human wisdom, objectivity and ability to transcend emotions is not very high.

Forbes has written an engaging thriller, set in London, England, a suave, beneath-the-radar serial killer on the loose, his victims vulnerable young women easily seduced by kind words. In a world where isolation is the norm rather than the exception, many single women in the London have given in to a pervasive despair, their loneliness an almost unbearable burden. When fourteen-year-old Gemma Kramer is found in an out-of-the-way church, DI Mark Tartaglia intuitively searches for similar cases, supposed suicides which eventually form a disturbing pattern, a clever killer who manipulates his victims into fateful scenarios. His Detective Chief Inspector still in ICU after a terrible accident, Tartaglia has stepped in to fill the void, intent on stopping the murderer before more lives are lost. Unfortunately for Mark, his supervisor has chosen another option, bringing in an outsider, the efficient Carolyn Steele.

Just as Tartaglia fears, well-meaning Steele quickly accepts the help of a profiler, Patrick Kennedy, a "Behavioral Investigative Analyst" to put it in more modern jargon. As more dead bodies surface, the investigation lurches from one suspect to another, none gaining the kind of traction needed to flush the killer from his lair. Trying to control his resentment at Steele's injection into his homicide unit, Mark works closely with an energetic newcomer, Samantha Donovan, a young woman who shares his passion for details, both dodging the supercilious, obnoxious Kennedy. Tartaglia and Donovan work tirelessly to uncover tangential leads, adding to the total of victims, even those who do not fit Kennedy's profile. Like most crimes, it is the accidental information that eventually points to a shocking revelation and a life and death standoff.

Cleverly playing her characters off one another, Forbes is impressive, her protagonists personally flawed, yet dedicated to their careers, diligent individuals who share a common purpose. While the serial killer acts out his elaborate schemes with intended victims, the homicide team struggles with the usual turf wars, exacerbated by the replacement of Tartaglia by Carolyn Steele. Steele has her own problems, including a series of emails from the killer that she finds deeply threatening, undermining her natural authority. But even at the worst of times, the homicide division grinds towards a resolution, a few leads developed by Mark and Sam bearing fruit at a critical juncture. Slyly observing the detectives' frustrations, the killer acts with impunity, drawing them into a spectacular trap that nearly ends two careers. The reader is left wanting more and there is a sequel: Our Lady of Pain. Luan Gaines/2008.

I read Die With Me just after finishing Peter Robinson's newest mystery. Mr. Robinson writes so well, that I usually have a sense that the next book I read after his is a distinctly inferior creation. Not so with Elena Forbe's first novel. Both character development and plot creation are astonishingly good for a first effort. I don't know if the methodology of the book's serial killer has a basis in an actual crime or not, but it has the ring of believability. The cast of characters she created, and their interrelationships, appear capable of supporting a long number of episodes in this series.

I definitely plan to add Ms. Forbes' name to the list of authors whose books I put on my must read list.

"For a moment, Donovan gazed blankly at the screen, the words she had just been reading swilling like smoke in her mind. Hearing Gemma Kramer's voice coming off the printed page, she felt sick. Gemma talked of her sense of isolation, how she was being bullied at school, how nobody seemed to understand her, how her mother and stepfather didn't care about her. The language was childish, the tone pathetic and moving. By contrast, the responses from the man named Tom were chilling." -- From Die With Me

I am a member of the Amazon Vine reviewer program, and selected Elena Forbes book Our Lady of Pain as one of my choices. Well, what I didn't know is that it was the second in a series, Die With Me being the first.

So I ordered Die With Me from Amazon.com to become familiar with the Barnes Murder Squad cast of characters.

I happened to be sick last weekend, so I sat in a recliner and read Die With Me all the way through. The plot is compelling: Fourteen-year-old Gemma Kramer falls from the heights of an organ gallery inside a church. It appears to be a suicide--except that a woman comes forward, swearing that she saw a young girl being kissed by a tall man in black outside of the church a few hours before the body was found.

The beginning of the book starts off from the viewpoint of the killer, switching from his point of view to those of the various members of the Barnes Murder Squad: handsome bachelor Mark Tartaglia, short and fiesty Sam Donovan, recently injured former DCI Trevor Clarke, computer expert Dave Wightman, and other minor characters.

First time author Elena Forbes does a good job painting word pictures of London, food, and various objects. Her characters are decently drawn and believable.

However, throughout the novel, I kept wondering why Mark, Sam and company seem so utterly STUPID. They miss the obvious connection between the dead girls until 3/4 through the book (and exclaim the connection like a huge "aha!". Yet, the connection was repeated so often, and so obviously, that I figured it out about 1/4 into the book).

And--possible spoiler here, so don't read this paragraph if you don't want a clue to something significant--I cannot BELIEVE that neither Mark nor Sam investigated the other "witness" that came forward midway through the case. In more than one mystery I've read, anyone that inserts themselves into a case as a "witness" or a "helpful" figure gets vetted, because criminals are often vain enough to want to be close to the "action" (much like pyros go to watch the fires they set, or are even firefighters themselves). DUH! Halfway through, I knew who the killer was...

Despite a promising premise, Die With Me fell flat, I'm afraid, and the ending was way too tied up in a bow for my tastes (although an unexpected escape was a nice twist).

I'm pleased to report, though, that the next novel in the Barnes Murder Squad Sereis--Our Lady of Pain--is reading much better. The characters are even more fleshed out and the plot utterly compelling. I like it that we're not given ANY insight into the murderer (although I have a good suspicion who the killer is) via flashbacks or the killer's point of view.

And, please realize this is a British crime novel, which means that you'll hear unusual phrases and words ("fug", "fags", "flat", as well as non-definied British police abbreviations like DC, DI, DCI, and SOCO). Also, I get irritated that Ms. Forbes continually says "try and" (as opposed to the grammatically correct "try to"), but otherwise, the writing itself is decent.

If you're a fan of Elizabeth George or the show Prime Suspect, you'll likely enjoy Die With Me--this book has that same feel. I'm 3/4 the way through Our Lady of Pain, a much tighter and more fascinating read, and am glad I began the Barnes Murder Squad series--if only to witness Ms. Forbes become a better writer and to see how the characters (especially Mark and Sam) develop over time.

Not a bad debut!

-- Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book