Reviewed by Vincenza Wall

Someone is luring lonely young girls into suicide pacts. The girls are misfits in their schools, their parents don't understand them and they see suicide with a partner as a romantic and easy end to their troubles.

The suicide trysts are romantic; complete with burning candles, exchange of rings and poetry. They are also tragic; only the young girls lay dead.

DI Mark Tartaglia is working on the case, in charge for his out of commission Chief. When the media gets hold of the case and dubs the killer "The Bridegroom", the case is taken away from him and given to a new DCI, Carolyn Steele. Steele and Tartaglia do not see eye to eye on many things, including the use of psychological profilers and following hunches. When Steele brings a profiler, Tartaglia is even more determined to follow his own leads on his own time with his own team of men. He is a bit of a rogue, and will do what it takes to get the job done. Even when he senses that Steele herself may be in danger, he continues down his own path.

Throw in his dark Italian good looks, convoluted love life, clinging sister and his love of fine wines and motorbikes, and his is an interesting and arresting character that is bound to become a semi-heartthrob in future novels when this series takes off.

With his partner, they track down leads—never knowing the killer is closer to them than they are to him.

The story is interspersed with chapters narrated by the killer, which make for a suspenseful read and keeps the reader guessing. Clearly the killer is someone who is watching the case and the players very closely; he wants to rattle them, to taunt them and even to kill them. He even goes so far as to stalk DCI Steele at her home, sending her threatening emails.

This is a well-written police procedural that doesn't glamourize nor undervalue the strength of police teamwork. The author's view seems to be that good police work is 90% hard work and 10% inspiration. I tend to agree with her. Good cops have good intuition and inspiration as a result of years of hard work; they aren't born with it.

As this tumultuous and suspenseful novel comes to an end, some would say the finale is unsatisfying and frustrating, as it doesn't wrap up neatly as most novels of this genre do; but no other ending would have fit the characters involved.

Elena Forbes and Mark Tartaglia are definitely a team to watch out for.

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Reviewed by Frank Thomas Foster

The world’s fascination with the phenomenon of the serial killer was born in the late 1800's in London, England, a product of Jack the Ripper’s reign of terror and the media frenzy that accompanied it. Much was made of the letters the killer apparently sent to the police and to the newspapers, taunting the authorities and inflaming the fears of the populace. Perhaps the letters were written by the infamous murderer. Or they were fabricated to spur on the hysteria and newspaper sales. In either case, the synergy between the dread of evil and the profit motive would not go unnoticed.

The subject eventually became fodder for writers of fiction. A sub-genre of the mystery novel was spawned, with a predilection towards exploring the psyche of the serial murderer as well as the police specialists that hunt these paragons of evil.

Elena Forbes’ novel, Die With Me, carries on the grand tradition of the serial killer murder mystery, displaying a flair for the dramatic plot turn along with a fresh British twist on the villain. She creates a character, The Bridegroom, with a compulsion for seducing young girls into a bizarre marriage-like ceremony, then hurling the unfortunate brides from high places. Not much of a honeymoon there.

On the side of justice, Detective Mark Tartaglia leads the chase. He’s handsome, drives a motorcycle, and is attracted to complicated women. Not to mention that his former police mentor is lying in the hospital facing a paraplegic future, and his matchmaking sister continually pesters him about the lack of romance in his life.

Unfortunately, some of the other characters fall flat, prone to excessive self-scrutiny and telegraphed flaws. A senior detective, Carolyn Steele, is parachuted in to head the investigative team, but she spends most of her time worrying then fretting some more. She drafts a criminal profiler—a standard ploy in serial killer fiction—but this one seems more interested in seducing the detective. The subplot would be amusing if the characters weren’t so annoying.

Detective Tartaglia and his other colleagues do manage to throw themselves into the investigation with the dedicated zeal of obsessed public servants. These cops don’t have a life, though they do have time for an occasional glass of wine and furtive analysis of their fitful love affairs.

In contrast, the murderer appears to lead a full life; he’s charismatic, sophisticated, highly organized, intelligent, and extremely sick. He also sports a resemblance to a vampiric Tom Cruise. He sends messages to the police, tormenting them with boastful threats. Or perhaps these emails are part of an elaborate Jack the Ripper type hoax. Detective Tartaglia is kept guessing, along with the reader, as the killer adjusts his modus operandi to match the moment.

The author sprinkles clues as the plot progresses, although most send the police dashing on wild goose chases and crashing into dead ends. The conclusion satisfies the reader’s hunger, but is careful to dangle enough loose ends to stimulate a future appetite. Ms. Forbes has penned a decent enough effort for a first novel. The adventures of Detective Tartaglia and his cohorts are expected to continue in an upcoming sequel.

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Reviewed by Warren Layberry

Die With Me is a solid, well-crafted police procedural set in the greater London area. A very promising debut novel by writer Elena Forbes.

In London's Ealing district the apparent suicide of fourteen-year-old Gemma Kramer quickly evolves into a murder investigation assigned to DI Mark Tartaglia, an ambitious, headstrong detective whose instincts soon uncover the work of a charismatic serial killer who preys on vulnerable girls and young women, sending them to their death.

The writing here is quite good with a plot that is both fast paced and direct. The characters, for the most part, are engaging, believable and credibly motivated. Forbes has a good eye for detail and knows how to quickly sketch out a scene without it seeming sketchy. This is especially true when it comes to the background of her protagonist. We pick up Tartaglia's career in medias res and though Die With Me is the first in what will likely become a series of Inspector Tartaglia novels, neither Tartaglia himself nor the cast of supporting characters around him feel green or "out of the box". For example we find out that there's been an awkward relationship between Tartaglia and one of the district coroners. Also Tartaglia's former boss and mentor DCI Trevor Clarke is in the hospital recovering from a serious motorcycle accident possibly never to return to duty. In short it feels as though the wheels of Tartaglia's personal and professional life are already in motion, meaning that though Die With Me is a first novel it doesn't entirely feel like a first novel.

The story is played out through multiple points of view including Tartaglia, DS Sam Donavan (a female sergeant with whom he's worked for a while), DCI Carolyn Steele (a detective chief inspector brought in by Tartaglia's superintendent), and the killer himself. Personally I would have preferred not to have seen all through the eyes of the killer as I find the overblown egos of these characters (and I have read a few) tiresome and somewhat cliché but this is a personal preference.

There are in fact a couple of characters who, at times, begin to swerve towards cliché but Forbes manages to stay in the lane, so to speak. This is one of the perils of writing within a genre as rich crime fiction, and more specifically police procedurals; that nagging sense that you've seen some of these characters before.

The one character I did have a problem with was that of profiler Dr Patrick Kennedy who seemed, frankly, a little cartoonish to me at times. Other than this one offkey note the rest of the cast seemed very much in tune.

While it's ridiculous to try to project the future success of a literary career based on the strength of a single book, I can say this; I will be picking up the next DI Tartaglia novel when it comes out, and in fiction that's probably as dependable a measure of success as you're going to get.

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Reviewed by Saleema Nawaz

In Die With Me, a new crime novel by debut author Elena Forbes, young women all over London are being manipulated by a murderer intent on throwing girls from high places. Called to the site of a suspicious-looking suicide, Detective Mark Tartaglia is the first to uncover a string of similar deaths and the unmistakeable pattern of a serial killer. Part thriller, part police procedural, Die With Me is a quick and satisfying fix for mystery lovers.

Variously described as headstrong, arrogant, and “bloody gorgeous” by his coworkers, Tartaglia is a likeable, if somewhat bland, protagonist. Like any self-respective detective, Tartaglia plays his hunches in spite of scepticism or outright disapproval from his superiors. Joined by tiny but stalwart Detective Sergeant Sam Donovan, a closet romantic with a pixie cut and funky fashion sense, Tartaglia puts himself on the line in order to get the killer off the streets.

Forbes’ novel is thoroughly up-to-date, with suicide websites and email providing predators with the means of contacting emotionally vulnerable women. Forensics are present where relevant, though the book never ventures into the more gruesome territory covered so adequately on primetime television. Contemporary musical references dot the pages, sometimes laboriously so, as in one stagy scene where a cop colleague goes through a pile of Tartaglia’s cds, posing questions about every artist in turn. More successful is Forbes’ portrayal of London: it comes across as authentic and lived-in, more than just a convenient backdrop of Big Bens and Westminster Abbeys. It has a modern feel—as varied in neighbourhoods and characters as its real-life counterpart.

Informed by a keen awareness of male-female power dynamics, Die With Me also presents a pleasant offering of tangled romances and sexual tensions. When various pairs of former lovers end up cooperating on the investigation, Forbes explores the accompanying awkwardness and messy emotions. No less interesting is witnessing the misunderstandings that develop as Tartaglia chafes under the leadership of Carolyn Steele, a woman brought in to head up the investigation after a press leak puts an end to the detective’s brief authority.

Though the writing in Die With Me is rarely subtle, the description is effective and keeps the plot rolling along at a fast clip. With frequent, fluid shifts in perspective, Forbes follows the action through the eyes of whoever is closest at hand, whether police officer, victim or villain. The opportunities for ambiguity that this technique affords might have been used to better advantage (for the most part, characters seem to be in agreement about one another, and where they differ, it’s expected), but it does serve to pique interest and heighten the drama with every turn. If Tartaglia and Donovan do not yet come across as fully realized, the follow up, which is apparently already in the works, offers the prospect of elaboration. With Forbes’ knack for pacing and plot already well on display in Die With Me, the sequel is equally unlikely to disappoint.

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Reviewed by Colin Martin

You ask any tricky dick and they’ll tell you, the detective games a rough one – rough on assorted livers, brainpans, love life’s, all that stuff. There’s a rigid code of behaviour, a cityscape peopled with charismatic stereotypes that threaten to overwhelm any newcomers and so much material written that if a new writer can’t find a way to stick out, they’ll just sink beneath the waves.

For most competent writers who try to take on the act of balancing successful formula with refreshing changes, the solution is to resituate the characters. The detective changes face from a streetwise straight white urban uber-man to Native anthropologist working on a Navaho reservation or a middle aged Polish woman fighting for single moms or a pair of lesbians bearing marked resemblance to the Hardy Boys. The detective dick formula remains intact and the story gains a new relevance and subject position.

Elena Forbes first effort, Die With Me, makes no such change. Her protagonist, DI Mark Tartaglia, works the streets of London with chiselled good looks, hearty appetites for hot dames and good booze, and blind faith in the strength of a hunch. His partner, the quietly competent DS Sam Donovan professes to hold her own and belies that claim by repeatedly relying on the support of her super-male compatriot. While the two are on the trail of a calculating psychopath, the case gets blown out to the press and police politics require that the cooler head of DCI Carolyn Steele usurp Tartaglia’s leadership. She brings in his arch nemesis, the poncy criminal profiler Dr. Patrick Kennedy who panders to the media and dictates the direction of Tartaglia’s investigation—leading to the inevitable showdown between the sure knowledge of gut instinct vs. the wobbling egotism of empirical science.

We’ve met these characters in these settings before and, given the sometimes clunky mechanics of their introduction into this novel and Forbes’ clichéd habit of overtly referring to detective clichés throughout the book; you ask (perhaps) why you should read it.

There are a couple of good reasons. First, despite initial appearances, the characters are not cardboard cutouts. Tartaglia’s lone wolf aesthetic is constantly belied by his friendships and familial relations. He is no Continental Op or Mike Hammer, lacking humanizing non-professional contact to the world. His network has grounding in a recognizable life that helps bridge his relationship to the reader. Likewise, many of the main characters exhibit functionally conflicting emotional and behavioural traits that deepen them and invite readership of their lives and reactions.

The other important thing is Forbes’ recognition of her competition. While detective novels still enjoy a large audience and sales, these days they also compete with the success of television and the massive popularity of such shows as CSI, Homicide, Law and Order. Forbes structurally appropriates television with that oldest trick in the mass media book: advertising. More particularly, the product shot.

In the first chapters of the book, Forbes’ exhaustive use of brand names – sometimes accompanied by sensual descriptions of the products and indications of where to acquire these wonderful items—is highly off putting. Really, I don’t need to know what kind of motorbike Tartaglia rides, or the brand of every type of wine or beer any of the characters drink, or the type of aftershave the villain uses. I certainly needn’t encounter “a large dollop of Claire’s Body Shop Orange Blossom Bath Essence” any more than I wish to encounter a thirty second commercial for the same.

As the book progresses however, the brands bear increasing relevance to the plot and narrative structure of the story. The villain’s use of particular products believably embellishes his ability to transform his external persona as he stalks his victims. When generic products are introduced later in the book, they underscore the moral hierarchies that dictate the actions of the characters. The brand names begin to blend into the background and render the scenery a more realistic, more visual environment. The risk of flabby description is removed from the text, the setting becomes more believable and the narrative has the luxury of captivating the reader’s attention. Even in the bath essence moments, the commercial break offers a moment of disruption after which the reader runs back to the tube to catch the rest of the story.

Whether or not the intrusion into literature of the commercial parasite is desirable, it is effective as a mode of communicating a readership reality largely based in the commercial world. Forbes appropriates that reality and recreates it in a book that, through deeper reading, turns out to be a more complex and interesting story than it first appears. She’s currently working on the sequel and I expect that as her mechanics improve, she will continue to offer a compelling and entertaining mirror for her readers to gaze into. It’s a good first book and I expect her next books will be even better.

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Reviewed by Brian Jantzi

Elena Forbes’ Die With Me reads like the work of a first–time novelist with great potential to accomplish good things in the genre. It is a story of London cops hunting a serial killer with a special place in his dark heart for suicidal women.

The promotional material implies that Lt. Mark Tartaglia is the central focus of the story. This is not completely true. The case is solved by a group of police working as a team, almost inadvertently. Although not a “police procedural” mystery, Die With Me does not fall into the trap of setting Tartaglia up as a genius crime-solver a la Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe.

Rather, Tartaglia is a made-for-TV creation, drawn like a combination of Robert Urich (Spenser) and Goran Visnjic (ER). He “solves” crimes “with his gut,” spends much of time brooding and eating the wrong food. His female co-workers secretly love him. He doesn’t come off as particularly realistic, but Tartaglia is probably the stuff of many common fantasies.

Reading the first part of the book, I found myself getting somewhat confused with the fact that the narrative point of view switched between four different voices— Tartaglia, two of his co-workers and the target of the investigation, “Tom.” At first, this seemed unnecessary. In the end, it makes sense, especially since one of the voices offers up fresh red herring for the reader.

Despite some flaws, something in Forbes’ writing draws you back to the story. Her style is entertaining and her characters engaging enough to keep you reading. Forbes is good at pacing. She keeps the tension high throughout the story like John Grisham. Unlike Grisham, she doesn’t throw unbelievable twists at the reader. Every development is logical within the context of the universe she has created.

I wouldn’t put her in a class with Ruth Rendell or Ian Rankin at this point in her career, but Forbes definitely has potential to grow into an excellent mystery writer. Pick this book up if you want an entertaining read for a long weekend.

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Reviewed by Wendy Lee Barnard

Elena Forbes has sunk her claws deep into her readers with her astonishingly well writer first novel. Die With Me, is a terrifying journey into the disturbed mind of a devastating serial killer. His pattern is sporadic, his wants are unclear, and DI Mark Tartaglia is at a loss. How do you track down a serial killer when he doesn’t fit the profile?

Forbes writes vibrant realistic characters that any reader can attach themselves to. Her quick pacing will keep you flipping the pages right to the end, rushing along behind Tartaglia, following the clues, trying to catch a murderer. There are twists and turns around every bend. No one is to be trusted.

After a motorcycle accident takes DCI Trevor Clarke out of commission, DI Mark Tartaglia assumes that he will be running the most recent murder investigation. When it eventually becomes clear that a serial killer is the culprit, Tartaglia is tossed aside and replaced by DCI Carolyn Steele. Tartaglia is left reeling, dealing with his wounded pride, and trying to devise a way to make himself come out on top. But he better be careful, or he’ll be so wrapped up in his own priorities to be able to see the answer that might just be staring him right in the face.

This book will scare the bejeezus out of anyone. I found myself shuddering in the corner, hidden beneath a heavy comforter, glancing at the window for signs of a staring face pressed against the glass. This book gives new meaning to the warnings your closest friends give you against meeting people online. Be careful what you wish for…it might just be your downfall…

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Reviewed by Kathryn Bennett

This novel is chilling from the start. It builds suspense on the premise that the potential for evil is ever present in our society. Part psychological thriller and part traditional detective novel, it is engrossing. A sense of doom is prevalent throughout.

The characters are well drawn and believable with a very appealing detective team. Like other great detective fiction writers, Forbes provides a social background for her detectives, making them come alive on the page. The situation that they are facing is all too real, and could be happening anywhere today.

My only quibble is that, as a Canadian reader, it would have been helpful to have a map of London included in the frontispiece.

Highly recommended and waiting for the next installment.

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Reviewed by Jill Purdy

“…[Die With Me] a novel by Elena Forbes, is a serial killer murder-mystery that immediately captivates the reader with its romanticized London setting and the prospect of a churchyard wedding—albeit one with the deranged overtones of a vampire looking to procure his prey, rather than wed his beloved bride.

Tapped by Forbes as “The Bridegroom”, the handsome killer seduces his victims by compulsively charming his way into their mundane lives and psyches, and then drugging them and hurling them to their deaths.

Equally as handsome on the side of justice is Detective Mark Tartaglia, an intellect who embraces his hunches as he looks beyond standard procedure and criminal profiles while investigating the murders. On his own after his partner is rendered paraplegic by a motorbike accident, Tartaglia pursues the cases, as well as his own personal relationships, with a moral fibre and vigour that is unparalleled in his colleagues.

The charm of the killer and resilience of the protagonist notwithstanding, Die With Me looks beyond superficial exteriors to reflect societal and individual power struggles that exist in everyday life. Although many of the supporting characters are somewhat two-dimensional and self-involved, all of them, including those with the briefest of introductions, are just as physically appealing as Tartaglia, but with compulsions and vulnerabilities that mimic, to some degree, the psychoses of The Bridegroom’s victims. These characters detract from the primary focus of the murders much in the way that faux clues lead justice down the wrong path. Invariably, my focus shifted to wanting further psychological and emotional investigation of the relationships of the characters rather than that of the killer and his motives.

As an avid mystery reader long out of practice, I looked forward to jumping back into the genre with Die With Me. Although I found the premise and resolution somewhat formulaic and predictable, the humanity of Detective Mark Tartaglia and his relationships merits anticipation of the next in the series.

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