“In a world of lies. . . The truth hides in the shadows
In a deadly game of cat and mouse, Detective Erika Foster confronts her greatest nemesis—where the lines of justice blur and secrets unravel.
A collapsed ceiling. A dead body. What starts as a routine 999 call takes an unexpected twist when Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster arrives on the scene and discovers the body of a woman in an empty flat, with all DNA evidence scrubbed away. When forensics find cocaine residue coating every surface of the ceiling, Erika calls in the drug dogs, who lead her to a mysterious parcel locker on the outside wall of the property. Chasing down the locker’s owner leads Erika back where she never expected to be – staring into the eyes of Jerome Goodman, the drug dealer who murdered her husband, Mark, ten years ago.
She arrests him on the spot, but there’s just one problem. His passport and his solicitor say his name is Kieron Bagshaw, and his record is squeaky clean.
With top brass demanding she take leave to deal with her PTSD and even her closest colleagues questioning her sanity, Erika decides to use the time off to do some digging of her own. Trawling for clues through old newspapers, encrypted messages, and secret underground passageways, Erika makes a series of shocking discoveries that move Mark’s murder from cold case to active investigation, all while flying under the Met’s radar.
The revelations will push Erika to the brink, forcing her to confront the trauma of her past and the truth about what happened the day Mark died – and who among her friends was involved from the shadows.”
Hello and welcome to damppebbles. Today I am delighted to share my review of Chasing Shadows by Robert Bryndza. Chasing Shadows was published by Raven Street Publishing on 5th June 2025 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats. I chose to read a free ARC of Chasing Shadows but that has in no way influenced my review. My grateful thanks to Rob and the team at Raven Street Publishing for sending me a finished copy.
I have been a HUGE fan of this series since the first book, The Girl in the Ice, was published in 2016. I feel Erika and team have a special little place in my heart as The Girl in the Ice was one of the first books I reviewed on damppebbles. (It was also one of my first NetGalley approvals!) Chasing Shadows is the ninth book in the series, and is the most personal, most devastating investigation yet!
DCI Erika Foster and DI James Peterson answer a call to attend a suspicious nearby death. The body, discovered when a radiator fell from the wall, through the floor and into the flat below, has been meticulously scrubbed clean. The victim’s flat is as sterile as the woman who was living there. Upon further investigation, traces of cocaine are found on the ceiling! This leads DCI Foster to a bank of parcel lockers not far from the flat. Could the lockers be being used to deal drugs? The registered owner denies having any interaction with the lockers and points Erika in the direction of her partner, Kieron Bagshaw. But the person who stands in front of Erika is not Kieron Bagshaw It is, without a shadow of a doubt, Jerome Goodman. The man responsible for a botched drug raid ten years earlier which resulted in Erika’s husband, DI Mark Foster, and several of their colleagues being gunned down in cold blood. Erika follows her instinct and immediately arrests ‘Kieron’. However, according to official records, Jerome Goodman died a few years earlier. Kieron Bagshaw appears to be unconnected, and he has the paperwork to prove it. With pressure from above to take leave, Erika – being Erika – can’t leave the matter alone. Determined to prove that Keiron IS Jerome, that she was right to arrest him, Erika, on forced leave, starts her own investigation. But the more information she uncovers, the more devastating the truth becomes…
Woah! Chasing Shadows is a tense, emotional and highly suspenseful addition to one of my favourite series. Erika has always carried the weight of her husband and her colleagues’ deaths on her shoulders. The reader has always been aware of this highly traumatic event in her life, but here we get to dig a bit deeper. I love Erika Foster. I’ve been a fan of the character and the writing since, I feel, day one. But her approach, the passion she puts into finding the truth, is ramped up twentyfold in Chasing Shadows. Her dogged determination was relentless. She knows from the moment she meets Kieron that he’s not who he claims to be. ‘Kieron’ seems to recognise Erika too and begins to goad her a little, pressing her buttons. I’ve always felt that’s a bit of a stupid thing to do with Erika Foster. She won’t stand for it and tends to strike back with added bite. Erika has always been a fierce, determined character but in this latest book, we see a new fire.
Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. Chasing Shadows is utterly thrilling, completely unexpected and packed full of emotion. I loved the clever way the author brought all of the different components together (and there are quite a few components in this book!). It was a joy to be reunited with well-loved, familiar characters again. I revelled in being submerged in their world once more and I look forward to reading about them again in the future. The twists and turns are beautifully delivered with some real shocking moments for the reader to get their teeth into. I would say you can *probably* read Chasing Shadows as a standalone but why would you want to when there are eight superb earlier novels to get stuck into? I feel a little background knowledge, in regard to this book in particular, will go a long way. All in all, Chasing Shadows is a thoroughly gripping police procedural with bucketloads of heart. It’s tense, highly intriguing and doesn’t really stop from the moment you crack the spine to the moment you close the back cover. Riveting, fast-paced and totally immersive. Highly recommended.
I chose to read and review a free ARC of Chasing Shadows. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.
Chasing Shadows by Robert Bryndza was published in the UK by Raven Street Publishing on 5th June 2025 and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio and digital formats (please note, the following links are affiliate links which means I receive a small percentage of the purchase price at no extra cost to you): | amazon.co.uk | Waterstones | Goodreads | damppebbles bookshop.org shop | damppebbles amazon.co.uk shop | damppebbles amazon.com shop |
Robert Bryndza is an international bestselling author, best known for his page-turning crime and thriller novels, which have sold over seven million copies.
His crime debut, The Girl in the Ice was released in February 2016, introducing Detective Chief Inspector Erika Foster. Within five months it sold one million copies, reaching number one in the Amazon UK, USA and Australian charts. To date, The Girl in the Ice has sold over 1.5 million copies in the English language and has been sold into translation in 30 countries. It was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller (2016), the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle in France (2018), and it won two reader voted awards, The Thrillzone Awards best debut thriller in The Netherlands (2018) and The Dead Good Papercut Award for best page turner at the Harrogate Crime Festival (2016).
Robert has released a further six novels in the Erika Foster series, The Night Stalker, Dark Water, Last Breath, Cold Blood and Deadly Secrets, all of which have been global bestsellers, and in 2017 Last Breath was a Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Mystery and Thriller. Fatal Witness, is the seventh Erika Foster novel.
Most recently, Robert created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Kate Marshall, a police officer turned private detective. The first book, Nine Elms, was an Amazon USA #1 bestseller and an Amazon UK top five bestseller, and the series has been sold into translation in 18 countries. The second book in the series is the global bestselling, Shadow Sands, the third book is, Darkness Falls and the fourth, Devil’s Way has just been published.
Robert was born in Lowestoft, on the east coast of England. He studied at Aberystwyth University, and the Guildford School of Acting, and was an actor for several years, but didn’t find success until he took a play he’d written to the Edinburgh Festival. This led to the decision to change career and start writing. He self-published a bestselling series of romantic comedy novels, before switching to writing crime. Robert lives with his husband in Slovakia, and is lucky enough to write full-time.
