The Killing Choice By Will Shindler

‘The Killing Choice’ is the latest book by Will Shindler and is the second book in the DI Alex Finn series.

It felt like a normal Friday evening before Karl and his daughter Leah were ambushed by a figure in a blank mask. At knife point, Karl is forced to make an impossible choice. Stay and die, or walk away from Leah and take this thug’s word that they both will live. Should Karl trust a villain and leave his daughter with a knife at her throat? Could he ever live with himself if he did? It’s not long before more seemingly unconnected and innocent people across London are offered a deal in exchange for their life. More blood is spilled, more families shattered, and more people are left to suffer with the consequences of their decisions.

This is the second book in the DI Finn and Paulsen series but it’s a brand new series for me.

A tense and gripping book that really grapples with morals, this book was impossible to put down. The story is primarily seen through the perspective of DI Finn as him and his team struggle to make sense of the recent killings, were the survivor has to choose who lives between someone who means a lot to them. The victim is brutally murdered and the survivor is left reeling from the guilt. As the body count grows, Finn is trying to make sense of the killings, but is still suffering from the loss of his wife and struggling with each day. His partner, Paulsen is also dealing with personal issues of her own, her father was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. As the pair try to piece the clues together, Finn keeps thinking back to Hope Estate where the knife crime is rife and drugs and gangs are constantly at war. Hayden, a young man from the estate is trying to get away from gangs, but is finding it hard to step back.

There are multiple perspectives in this story that really keeps the reader engaged. I really liked Finn and Paulsen and really sympathised with them, as they tried to continue with their jobs and not let their personal lives get in the way. Finn is dealing with grief and throwing himself into his work as a distraction and this is where easy mistakes can be made. Whereas Paulsen is dealing with her own type of grief, the loss of her father to Alzheimer’s and this is also having an effect on her work.

The concept of this story is quite fascinating, to force someone into choosing a life to be taken, instead of their own and it made quite the thinker of a story.

Fast paced with twists and drama riddled through, ‘The Killing Choice’ is a chilling and suspenseful story that really hooked me in. Cleverly written with plenty of gasps, shocks and tackles serious issues as mental health and gangs, DI Finn and Paulsen are certainly a duo I’ll be looking into.

You can pre-order ‘The Killing Choice’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 11th February 2021.