This second book featuring DCS Frankie Sheehan has a solid mystery and reads very much like an episode of CSI with the details about the crime scenes. In fact, the story includes plenty of detail about almost everything except our characters. On that front, I was hoping for something more. As it stands, the characters, including Frankie, lack enough personality to really get a feel for them, much less relate to them. As with any group of people who work closely together, I would expect some personal conversation, maybe some banter between friends, but there is a distinct lack of that here that gives the story a very straightforward and dispassionate atmosphere. On a positive note, the suspense is good with a murder mystery that isn't too easy to figure out. So, while I did like the murder mystery, the impersonal feel left me with a lack of connection to any of the characters, including Frankie. 

I have to admit that I know and like Celine Kiernan and have had a lot of conversations with her. I will be pestering her for more in this series and hoping that someone has commissioned them.

This is a story of a young girl who has to fight for her family when everything changes after her great-aunt dies.  Some magical creatures steal her father and she has to help her mum negotiate the magical world she came from years ago and deal with a world that is not what they're used for.

Things will never be the same again but maybe they can be okay.

I really liked it and really want to read more set in this world.

Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan has just returned to work after a traumatic event in which she nearly lost her life. Her first case appears to be a suicide but Frankie is quick to spot a clue that shows the death was caused by someone else. Soon the gears are in motion to track down the killer. And then another body is found.

Don’t be misled if you start to read this novel and think you’ve arrived in the middle of the series. You haven’t. Frankie was involved in an incident and has just returned to work when the body of Dr Eleanor Costello is found. She is still dealing with the ramifications of that previous event as she comes to investigate an apparent suicide that is in fact murder. As the story progresses Frankie has to face that history to discover what is happening in the here and now.

Frankie is brittle, dedicated and takes no-nonsense. She is hard-working and expects that from her team of detectives. She doesn’t come across as that friendly, except with her boss Jack Clancy and fellow detective Baz. The relationship between these three, and Frankie and Baz in particular, brought light relief to what is otherwise a dark novel.  It is the theme of the novel that makes it so dark, BDSM and the desire to feel death without dying is central to the plot but is not used in a gratuitous way. The story travels from Dublin to the coast and becomes a little more personal for Frankie when events happen in her home town. The reader is given only a brief glimpse into her past, but the feeling is there that these are to sow the seeds for further revalations in later books.

Too Close to Breathe is a strong debut and opener to a new series. There are other characters that make up the team, each one with their own specialism that makes for interesting dynamics. I am hoping that future books develop the characters further (with Frankie hopefully being a bit nicer to her colleagues, particularly poor Helen). The reader can only create a small picture of Frankie Sheehan from this novel. She keeps her cards close to her chest. I get the impression almost that every reader of the book will have their own vision of who the characters are.

I had figured out who the culprit was which perhaps explains why I was shaking my head at Frankie as the denouement played out, wondering how she managed to get herself into such scrapes and telling her what she should not be doing. However this did not spoil my enjoyment of the story.

An entertaining, well written novel with an unusual plot, that moves at just the right pace. I look forward to reading more from Olivia Kiernan in the future.

The Irish are fantastic storytellers, and Olivia Kiernan proves that she is going to be one of the best. Too Close to Breathe is the first in the Frankie Sheehan mystery/thriller series and debut novel for her. 

Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan who four months earlier, was almost killed in an attack trying to apprehend a killer. When she is called to a Dublin suburb to investigate the supposed suicide of a woman, Eleanor Costello,  who is found hanging from a rope in her home. At first, it seems cut and dried and the case can be closed but after the autopsy report shows old wounds and broken bones Frankie realizes that this is not a suicide. Of course, the first suspect is the husband.

Another woman's body is discovered with the same MO as Eleanor's. Then Paul Costello is found and that really throws the investigation into a tailspin. Frankie is challenged with all she has to try to figure out what really happened. Frankie is a strong but flawed, a bit rough around the edges, woman who tries to take charge of her demons and keep an open mind in her investigation. With the help of her team, Frankie pulls out all the stops in this case.

Too Close to Breathe is a taut thriller that will have fans of Tanya French and Gillian Flynn excited to read this new author. I really loved the story and definitely want to read more from Olivia Kiernan. 

I have two copies.  I'm considering selling one, since they're going for $250 and up on Amazon.  I assure you, neither I nor my friend paid this much for it.  I got one as a gift after buying one for myself - after saying I wouldn't.   So, yeah, what do you guys think I should do?

Meanwhile, my Transformers Timelines: Shattered Glass is a twenty five page comic.   Asking price is going for $160, I have two copies - and got one for a friend, so I bought it three times.   You can pry that out of my dead cold hands, but no way am I giving up either copy.   Sorry to all my TF loving friends, but I loved that so much I was afraid I'd read it to tatters - one copy will likely end up that way eventually - and I bought an extra copy for that reason.   Because I did that to Mutant X #1, which Marvel now loves pretending doesn't exist. 

The Timelines, by the TF collectors club/Fun Publications - were rarely printed, and Shattered Glass seems quite popular.   Mirror-verse of Transformers: Grimlock is smart and very evil, for example.   

And yeah, if anyone is a Kiernan fan/knows one and really wants the extra Five of Cups lemme know.   I'd probably sell it for going price: I don't know if $250 is accurate, but I'll dig in if anyone is interested.  I'm going with Amazon prices right now.  I'm seeing $150 at the lowest, so it would be at least $100 that I'd be selling one copy for right now.