The Die Back by Grayson Steele
Grayson Steele
3 Stars
Pages: 254
Genre: Mystery, Female Sleuth, Occult, Australian
Published: 22 March 2022
Publisher: Millport Press
Publisher's Blurb
Ritual death. Young life. Can the one woman from the outside curb the bloodletting liturgy?
Dakota Jones lives and breathes the strange. Unorthodox and willing to follow clues no matter where they lead, the forthright detective is relentless in her pursuit of the truth. So when a member of a remote society off Tasmania’s coast washes ashore dead under suspicious circumstances, the determined detective goes undercover to bring the victim justice.
Delving deep into the isolated culture only to find it more of an unwelcoming cult, Dakota discovers the body belonged to an intended sacrifice who tried to get away. And when she learns the rebellious teen next in line for the murderous ceremony is planning a daring escape, she’s in a race against the clock to uncover a dark revelation.
Can the driven detective save the girl and herself before they’re sucked into a zealot’s maw?
The Die Back is the eerie first book in the Detective Dakota mystery series. If you like powerful female characters, bizarre societies, and heart-stopping surprises, then you’ll love Grayson Steele’s edge-of-your-seat investigation.
Buy The Die Back for an offering of blood today!
Review
When a dead body washes up on the mainland it reopens the investigation from a year ago when something similar happened. Both bodies were from the same remote village where the people and the practices appear to be stuck in the 1700's
Detective Dakota Jones is assigned to go undercover into the village to discover exactly what has been going on, hopefully with better results than the last investigation which foundered against a wall of silence.
This novel brings to mind 'The Wicker Man' with it's cult and cut-off village feel.
Dakota is a feisty smart girl and her character is well written. The antagonists are a bit scary and look like they're capable of anything, including murder, so you're never sure who is going to survive to the end.
Not a bad introduction to the Dakota Jones series which will hopefully expand and grow the character in the books to follow
The Author
He quit his job in 2020 and started writing his debut novel—The Die Back.
Grayson describes The Die Back as an accumulation of thoughts and ideas sitting in the back of his mind for many years. He just never had time to put them together while working a busy lifestyle and raising a family. When the time came to put pen to paper, he immersed himself into authoring the book.
Grayson writes about female sleuths as the main protagonist in mysterious settings that border the supernatural and mystique. His stories are more than detective procedurals offering a new voice and narrative by capturing the emotion of readers in narrative tension and plot that is unique and creative. Readers are guessing to the very end while becoming engaged in the storyline.
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