Thank you to Jonathan Ball Publishers for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
SPOILER WARNING: This review may contain spoilers!
| Format | Paperback |
| Pages | 317 pages |
| Published | November, 2022 by Jonathan Ball Publishers (first published January 1, 2006) |
| ISBN | 9781776192557 |
| Genre | Adult, Crime, Thriller |
| Book Series | Clare Hart Series |
| Content Warning | rape, human trafficking, violence, brutality against women, pornography |
When a beautiful young woman is found murdered on Cape Town’s Seapoint promenade, journalist and part-time police profiler Dr Clare Hart is drawn into the web of a brutal serial killer.
As more bodies are discovered, Clare is forced to re-visit memories of the brutal rape of her twin sister and the gang ties that bind Cape Town’s crime rings.
Is her investigation into human trafficking linked to the murders or is the killer just playing a sick game with her?
Now this, was surprisingly good. I was a little if-y at the start but the writing pulls you in quickly and the story hooks you hard.
Set in and around the beautiful Cape Town, Orford decides to take the reader on a tour of the “seedier” part of the Mother City instead, the criminal underbelly…
Clare Hart is an investigative journalist currently working on an in-depth expose on human trafficking when the body of a young girl, staged in a certain way, is found on the Sea Point promenade, practically on her doorstep. Having worked with the police before, she soon gets a call and has to reconnect with Riedewaan Faizal; currently an embarrassment to his division, they have worked together in the past and share a history.
The writing is phenomenal and the author is highly descriptive – lol, there was a time when I was annoyed by all the descriptions because I thought it was just wasting my time in getting to the killer, but that was probably just me being hasty.
I found the characters to be well-written and fleshed-out; the dynamic between the different characters was so en-pointe and the creep factor for the “villains” was excellent.
Although everything does get tied up nicely, I feel that there are still some loose ends; like the history between Riedewaan and Clare still isn’t clear and some of the symbolism – why the colour blue, for example – also hasn’t been explained.
Overall, though, Like Clockwork is thoroughly thrill-worthy and is an excellent start to what is looking to be an excellent series; I highly recommend it.
Thankfully, JBP also sent me the next three books in the series so I’m going to get on that 😉
Happy reading!
Mr Pink Ink 