Review: 'One for Sorrow' (D.I. Callanach #7) by Helen Fields

Cat-and-mouse games provide an excellent plot structure for thrillers and mysteries. Who is really chasing whom? As Ava and Luc run down the clock, you just know someone is going to get hurt in the process and it creates for excellent tension. And yet, something didn't entirely work for me here. Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review. My sincere apologies for the long delay in reviewing!

Pub. Date: 03/03/2022
Publisher: Avon Books

One for sorrow, two for joy
Edinburgh is gripped by the greatest terror it has ever known. A lone bomber is targeting victims across the city and no one is safe.
 
Three for a girl, four for a boy
DCI Ava Turner and DI Luc Callanach face death every day – and not just the deaths of the people being taken hostage by the killer.
 
Five for silver, six for gold
When it becomes clear that with every tip-off they are walking into a trap designed to kill them too, Ava and Luc know that finding the truth could mean paying the ultimate price.
 
Seven for a secret never to be told…
But with the threat – and body count – rising daily, and no clue as to who’s behind it, neither Ava nor Luc know whether they will live long enough to tell the tale…

Ava Turner and Luc Callanach are probably my favourite detective duo, just like Helen Fields is one of my favourite mystery/thriller writers. And yet it took me ages to get around to One for Sorrow and I left it not entirely sure how I feel about the series at this point. I did have a good time with One for Sorrow. And yet... I think maybe I'm not meant for these long detective series because although Fields does a good job at showing how both Ava and Luc are cracking under the pressure, I nonetheless don't understand how they are still standing with everything that has been going on. I think this is just a point where I cannot fully suspend my disbelief, since I have the same issue with detective shows or even superhero films where the hero gets up again even after the 50th punch straight to the head. So while I like both Ava and Luc as characters, I can no longer fully "believe" in them as real people. That doesn't entirely take the pleasure out of reading these books, but it does somewhat hamper my ability to fully connect. This is a personal thing, however, and so will not be the same for other readers.

One for Sorrow is grim, which becomes clear when it starts at a funeral of someone you'll care about if you've read other books in the series. There is a new threat in Edinburgh, a killer who is out for revenge. But who is the killer truly targeting? We get some clues through the story of Quinn, a young woman who finds herself targeted by an obsessive and abusive boyfriend. How her timeline and story align with that of Ava and Luc trying to deal with the increasingly violent crimes from their killer is not revealed until quite close to the end, although as an attentive reader you'll start putting those clues together. I was still on the wrong track with my predictions though and the eventual revelation was quite bitter sweet. I will say that Helen Fields takes it to a hundred in One for Sorrow. There is non-stop tension, the crimes are rough to read, the backstory is tragic, and there is literally only one tiny little ray of sunshine throughout the entire 400 pages of this book. Ava is on a downward spiral and there is a fatigue to her that is hard to read, especially considering that the punches keep coming regardless. One for Sorrow is not a good time, in that sense, although it is a tense and occasionally thrilling one!

I really enjoy Helen Fields' writing and have for a while. I like how she builds and maintains tension, the set pieces she sets up, and how she fleshes out her characters. There are certain scenes in this book which felt incredibly vivid, in good and bad ways, which meant I could see them in my mind. There are little ticks she gives her characters which make them intensely human and recognisable. I truly think that the D.I. Callanach series is an excellent one for anyone who loves tense thrillers and a solid, "found family"-esque team of detectives. With One for Sorrow however, I, as I mentioned above, hit the wall of "how much more are we going to make these people suffer". This is an issue, if you want to call it that, with the genre itself. If you're going to keep a series going, you have to up the stakes somehow. With all of that in mind, One for Sorrow is a dark and twisted read and maybe it's a good thing that the next book in the series hasn't come out yet. Perhaps if we give it some air, there will also be some light at the end of this harsh tunnel for Fields' main characters. This book did also introduce cognitive psychologist Connie Woolwine to me, who is the protagonist of a new (?) series Fields is writing, so perhaps I'll check that one out.

I give this novel...

3 Universes!

I did enjoy One for Sorrow but it left me feeling somewhat in the dumps after. This is not a flaw of Helen Fields' writing in any way, it is just a consequence of seven books' worth of trauma and ever-increasing stakes both for the main characters and the reader. So it's time for a little break for me, but the whole series is still one I'd recommend!