Did she jump or was she pushed?
It starts with the hanging woman in the Maple Valley woods; the woman with no shoes, no car, and no name. On paper, it’s an obvious case of suicide – but to Officer Dean Matheson, something doesn’t add up.
Then there are the other deaths, deaths that also look like suicides – but are they? The victims are all women living on the fringes of society, addicts, and criminals. Who will miss them? Does anyone really care if they die?
Dean Matheson is making it his business to care, even if it means he becomes a target..
Reviews
By Fany van Hemelen
A fantastic mix about attraction, damaged lives and suspense in an intriguing psychological thriller!
Dean Matheson, a policeman wants to be a detective so when he gets the opportunity to do research for a case he is doing a great job! His research is so good and neither he can believe it, but he thinks there is a “serial killer” in Maple Valley. It all started with a strange suicide from a lady who hang herself in a tree and was barefoot in the cold woods. Suddenly other victims died, but was there something suspicious about it? Dean is not the most perfect character and I liked that. He is grieving for the moment and that makes his head spin around. He is running away from the facts and when he falls for the attractive Beth he has some distraction. Beth is the new English psychiatrist in the prison and he soon gets to know her better. Some months ago Dean his brother died and he still feels guilty for his dead. When a new tragedy happens, he search support and attention by Beth. The people in the village don’t understand him and the gossip starts and makes things worse. The perpetrator has an almost perfect plan to put the guilt on someone else.
But why are all the people dying? Why would you want to kill someone? It looks like the serial killer has a crusade. A little disappointment for me was that I almost immediately know who the killer was. But that doesn’t ruin the party. In this book is the how and especially the why the most important. The author is digging into the past off the killer and bit by bit I discover why someone is forced to kill. Who cares if they die is a book with a lot importance in the psychology and for me this is always an added value in a book. It is a police story, but it’s more a read about damaged people and their demons!
After this book I want to read more about Dean Matheson and his new adventures. I think it is impossible when you meet this conscientiously, but the mental injured police officer to forget him and his nice friend, the dog, Rocky. 4 stars.
By Tiziana Langone
So… I got some mixed feelings about this book… There were some different things that got me annoyed while reading the first chapters. The whole time the story is written in present tenses. Nothing wrong with that, but for some reason, it bothered me… Another thing that I wasn’t fond of, was the way the sentences were written. Too often it was ‘he does…’ followed by ‘he says’…. followed again by a ‘he thinks…’ and so on. I’m sure there are other ways to explain what’s going on in the story than this… But this is my personal thoughts, and I’m sure that my friends would say : ‘ There she is again, being part of the Grammar Police!’ As I had the ‘duty’ to review the story, I went for it anyway and continued reading. I must says, sometimes too often I disliked all characters. While I got to know Dean better, all I could think about was: ‘How easily can you be fooled? And how superficial can he be?’ And Beth… well, I never liked her from the beginning. In my opinion it was way too obvious what was going on, so I never was drawn to the story. The further I got into the story, I somehow managed to get over my reservations. Slowly I wanted to know how the murderer would be discovered, and how all the effects would affect Dean and his entourage. And before I knew, I finished the book, without counting how many chapters were left… I know that each writer put his/her heart into each story they write, but this one was, sorry, not really my cup of tea… But as this is the first of a series, maybe the next stories of Dean and Rocky will be more my thing, who knows?
By Ilse Van Thielen
A series of alleged suicides happen and officer Dean had to find out why these people killed themselves. Soon it turn out to be murder. But who is the culprit?
How I enjoyed this story! There is anticipation at the end of every chapter. More than once I told myself, just one more chapter and I ended up reading much more. It was a complete surprise to me who the killer was when the writer revealed it. From that moment on, the story started to split more clearly into two povs. That of officer Dean and the one of the suspect. I loved this book so much. It was more than the regular love stories I read to review for Choc Lit. The title of the book is really a part of the story. The sentence is literally mentioned. And oh my god, that ending! A well written page turner.
By Kim Claes
Well, this is my kind of book. I love detective trillers and I have already read a lot of this genre. I think it’s a difficult thing to write a story that keeps the reader hooked. And to write it so that the reader wants to find the killer him/her self before it’s explained.
And this book “Who Cares if they Die” is definitly one that’s fits the row of excellent trillers.
You meet Dean an officer who yearns for a promotion, and a better relationship with his wife. He has work on a suicide case and has a gut feeling that something is wrong. Through some kind of luck he gets the chance to work independently on the case and another one. Maybe he makes it to detective yet…
I won’t write anything more about the story, you’ll just have to read it, if you want to know what happens. I’ll swear to you, you will not regret reading this book! Awesome story! Lovely characters. The right proportions in the sympathetic characters and those that you can sell a blow. The story unfolds at the right pace, with nice twists, tension, lust, and intrigues.
A perfect crime novel. If you love them, you will not be disappointed.
Conclusion: I would like to know what happens next. And I quite sure I have a new series planned on my reading list.
When can I read the next one?
By Patsi Demarsin
I have to say I loved it.
It was a completly different book and I was pleasently surprised. The story was good and the suspension was build up. It didn’t take me long to figure out who the serial killer was and maybe that could have been a bummer but it really wasn’t. It was great to read how the killer tried everything to get out of suspicion and go free…
I can’t really get in to the story because that would spoil to much… my advice: buy that book when you like psycological thrillers.
I liked it very much!
So nice to read something else than the usual love stories!
When I should have to rate this book with stars, I would be very happy to give it 4*!
Loved it!
By Melody Weemaels
I.LOVED.THIS.BOOK! Wow, where do I start? The plot is amazing, I did not suspect a thing untill the author let us in on who the perp was. I was sucked in to this book from the very first page. It does has it little flaws, like it’s clearly a Brittish author trying to write an American story. But Hey, who gives a darn when you get served an amazing story like this one! It actually would make a really good movie too. I was so happy when I read that this is the first installment in a series revolving around Dean and Rocky (oh god, how I adored Rocky!) and that the author is currently writing the second novel. So Wendy: please hurry up, I need to know what happens next!
Thank you, Ruby Fiction.
About the author
Wendy is a British crime thriller writer who lives in the UK with her husband and 3 rescue cats. She started writing as a young girl, thanks to her love of reading, and still has some of the ghost and crime stories she wrote back then. She occasionally reads them when she needs a good laugh. After completing a degree in Creative Writing & Philosophy, Wendy is now an author of a dark Young Adult novel (which was long-listed for the Mslexia Novel Competition) and of several short stories published in anthologies. Who Cares If They Die is her debut novel with Ruby Fiction. Wendy is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the Society of Authors. When not writing, she wastes her time on Twitter, complaining about not having enough time to write.
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