The Girl Who Broke the Rules: Marnie Richies review

The Girl Who Broke The Rules

by Marnie Richies

Rating: 3 Star

I first picked up this book thinking that it was another in the Stieg Larrson series, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. 

The Girl Who Broke The Rules by Marinie Richies is not connected with Larrson, but I fans of Larrson may well enjoy this novel as it has many similar aspects, a crazed killer, a dedicated detective, and fast-flowing pace.

The plot of this novel is largely set between London and Amsterdam. The story opens with the gruesome discovery of a mutilated sex worker. 

Assigned to the case is Chief Inspector van den Bergen, your typical overworked, overstressed detective. Helping with the investigation is  Georgina McKenzie, a UK-based student currently researching and profiling the most violent offenders in the UK including the notorious Dr. Silas Holm (who I just pictured as Anthony Hopkins' character Dr. Hannibal Lecter as I read the book).

This is a richly (and occasionally gruesomely) described novel from Riches and the combination of McKenzie and van den Bergen is really good, they interact really well with each other and make a great team. 

The plot flowed quickly and there were enough twists and help each chapter fly by. The only thing that spoilt the novel for me slightly were my own comparisons back to Larsson (Kalle Blomkvist/van den Bergen and Lisbeth Salander/Georgina McKenzie). When I read the next novel in the series I am going to make an effort to stop swapping out the characters for each other.

I haven't read the first book of this series yet (The Girl Who Wouldn't Die) but there are a lot of references to it in this story so I would really recommend that you read that first.