Within Scared to Death, husband and wife, Tony and Yvonne Richards return home from holiday to what can only be described as a nightmare. During their absence their daughter has been kidnapped and they are told by her kidnappers that their daughter will only be released if they pay a ransom. After paying the ransom they are informed of where their daughter is but nothing could possibly prepare them for what they find when they get there for their daughter is no longer alive. In a state of shock they phone the police and Detective Seargeant Kay Hunter is assigned to work on the case along with her colleague Detective Constable Ian Barnes - they are responsible for figuring out exactly what went on.
One thing that has to be said about this book is that the situation it presents seems scarily realistic and as such I found that it was very easy to become involved in the story and I was desperate to find out what happened. What undoubtedly worked in this book's favour was Detective Seargeant Kay Hunter, a great lead character, who was strong and intelligent in the world of policing. Thanks to the way in which the author had presented information about her life not just at work but also at home, by the end of the novel I felt like I had really got to know her.
The book wasted absolutely no time in getting started and threw the reader straight into the midst of the drama where the tension was palpable. The tension only continued to grow as the novel progressed and I can safely say that this book more than kept me on my toes, it was impossible to predict and I had absolutely no idea where it was going to take me next. This was far from one of your slow-moving detective novels as it was fast-paced from the beginning and, with relatively short chapters which I thought worked wonderfully for this book, I found myself flying through it incredibly quickly. It's the sort of book that I imagine would work extremely well as a successful television Drama.
Scared to Death was one of those books that kept me awake way past my bedtime as once I had started it I was very reluctant to put it down. Based on how great I found this first book to be, I can honestly say that I predict great things for this series of books which I will most definitely be following very closely. This most certainly won’t be the first and last book by Rachel Amphlett that I read.
