PROOF OF LIFE is the latest from Karen Campbell, and the fourth in her series featuring feisty Chief Inspector Anna Cameron. There is, clearly, no end to Campbell's talents. This novel is even better than SHADOWPLAY, her third book, and will leave you stunned.

Opening with the carnage at Glasgow airport after the terrorist bomb attack there, the plot moves to focus on Mary, a young stable-hand at a riding centre run by her friends Fiona and Bernadette. Mary has been given a second chance at the centre and loves her new life there with the animals. One day she witnesses a strange fat man leap out and threaten Bernadette. This sets a chain of events in motion that will change her life forever.

Anna's life, now settled and happy with a wonderful man and a teenage stepdaughter, is also shaken to the core - by the discovery of a familiar body near the canal. Things and people from Anna's past start to leak into the present and force her to face up to things she would rather forget. Anna realizes that everything she holds dear could be taken away from her forever, as the book surges on to its dramatic conclusion.

An awesome story, that gets under your skin and leaves you exhausted after it has finished with you, PROOF OF LIFE is every bit as fantastic as you hope it will be. Once again, finely polished wording mixed with just the right amount of vernacular make this book highly readable and extremely addictive. Karen Campbell has more than proved her worth with her fourth excellent book and deserves a very bright future in the Scottish crime fiction scene.

Extremely highly recommended.

Read another review of PROOF OF LIFE.

Amanda C M Gillies, Scotland
March 2012

Details of the author's other books with links to reviews can be found on the Books page.
More European crime fiction reviews can be found on the Reviews page.