REVIEW ~ With Our Blessing by Jo Spain

It's true what they say . . . revenge is sweet.

The story opens in 1975 with a baby, minutes old, is forcibly removed from it's devastated mother which causes trauma for the mother from that moment and causes a ripple effect down through the years with many more young girls which go unnoticed.

Fast forward 35 years to 2010 where the body of an elderly woman is found in a Dublin public park in the depths of winter.  Her murder scene is a resemblence to the crucifixition of Jesus Christ.

Detective Inspector Tom Reynolds is the lead detective working the case along with his team. He's convinced the murder is linked to historical events that took place in the notorious Magdalene Laundries.  Reynolds and his team follow the trail to an isolated convent in the Irish countryside. But once inside, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is amongst them and is determined to exact further vengeance for the sins of the past.

I absolutely LOVED With Our Blessing, I was gripped right from the start, it is tense, shocking and completely addictive.  I didn't know who to trust and I'd so many suspects as to who the killer was. Jo has written about the Magdalene Laundries which were real here in Ireland for years run by the nuns for young girls who were brought to these places when they were pregnant outside of wedlock and believe me the stories I've heard growing up about these homes were barbaric and true.  I also went to both Primary & Secondary School's in Dublin run by the nuns and you were terrified of stepping out of line as you didn't want to feel or hear the wrath from them but Jo has managed to really put the barbaric events into words but has handled it all with great sensitivity.

This is Jo Spain's debut novel and it was fantastic, it was so well written and researched, I couldn't believe this was a debut.  There are another 3 books as part of the DI Tom Reynolds series and I'm really looking forward to reading the next 2 installments which are Beneath The Surface and Sleeping Beauties before the release of the fourth book titled The Darkest Place which is due for release in 2018.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

With Our Blessing is available in all good bookshops, libraries and on Kindle where it is currently £0.99 at the time of publication of this review.