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By: Candice Fox
ISBN: 9781617734410
Publisher: Kensington Books
Publication Date: 1/27/2015
Format: Paperback
My Rating: 5 Stars

A special thank you to Kensington Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

HADES, a spine-chilling debut, by award-winning Australian author, Candice Fox is a dark, twisted, violent, gruesome psychological, crime, cop procedural, suspense thriller all rolled into ONE "Bloody-Good" mystery. Like NO other - Good versus evil mostly, evil.

It all began one night, a kidnapping gone wrong, five evil men, murdered millionaire parents, half- dead brother and sister-ages three and five, two privileged children, the junkyard; Hades, the junkyard king in Sydney, “The Lord of the Underworld,” intelligent, artistic man, a sculptor, known for disposing of bodies, for a mere price of twenty grand.

HADES: “His first thought would be to bury the children there together and dig the stranger in somewhere, anywhere, with the dozens of rapists, killers and thieves who littered the grounds of the dump. He closed his eyes. Too many strangers were coming to his dump these nights with their bundles of lost lives. He would have to put the word, NO new clients were welcome. The ones he knew his regular clients brought him bodies of evil ones. But these strangers. He shook his head. These strangers kept bringing innocents.”

Until he realizes, they are NOT dead. He WILL allow the two children to live; raise them as his own. Their new names will be Eden and Eric.

There was nothing in Hades’ past that he could use as a model for a healthy childhood. He had learned about respect by beating it into people and fairness was something he’d rarely witnessed. Some part of him feared that one day they would be gone from his life as abruptly as they had come. Though villains of every nature still arrived at his door seeking help, the little ones gave him a reason to believe that not all of his life was dedicated to evil.

He fell in love with them, with a complete and undeniable love of a father. He wanted the best for these two brilliant students.

The first time the children killed they were eight and ten. The best he could do was try to turn their killer instincts on those other monsters out there in the night who deserved it, and in a twisted and sickening way, maybe they would be making the world safer from the same darkness they each carried.

Flashing back from past to present, some twenty years later, homicide detective Frank Bennett meets his new partner, the dark and beautiful Eden Archer. Her brother, Eric, is also in the homicide squad and immediately makes it clear that he has real problems with anyone chosen to be Eden's partner. While they are experienced detectives, it is soon clear to Frank that there is something very unusual about Eden and Eric. Made even more difficult when their first case together turns into a bizarre serial killer scenario- a killer who seems to be harvesting of organs. A lot of organs.

“No matter how much Hades fantasized about the two of them being children, moldable, and teachable and eager for love, they had stopped being children the night they were given to him, the night their parents were killed. Hades had fallen in love with two chimeras, two monsters in disguise, incapable of feeling the way he felt, of loving the way he loved. The horror they had experienced had cut a hole in them and they would be driven in vain to fill that hole for as long as they lived. Dogs with a taste for blood, enslaved to the need. “

Hades is unsure the children know "right from wrong", but he is hoping they can learn. The junkyard is a place for the evil ones, and never for the innocents.

Then, Eden: Age five, when the murder of her family occurred. She as a child then, and never was again.

Present, Eden: “A monster removed from the earth. The world was a little if safer for sons and daughters, mothers and fathers sleeping and laughing and holding each other in millions of houses and streets all over the world. One fiend at a time over and over, Eden and her brother had made the world a little bit safer. The job made it easy to find them, to pick them out and examine them like the lice they were, to choose them and crush them before they were safely bottled. Child molester, wife beaters, pimps, and psychotics and thrill killers. Snip, snip, snip. She was cutting away the ragged edges of a net and wholesome world. Tonight would be the last. To end a story. To kill for justice, and not for vengeance. However, she cannot stop the voices.”

What a debut! I could not go to bed until I finished the novel, as scary as it was to read, you are pulled in with Hades, who loves the brother and sister, and at the same time your heart goes out to damaged and troubled children experiencing great psychological trauma and pain. All they know is violence and revenge.

I was blown away by the author’s inspiration for the book, and her vast background. I listened to a hang out session with the author, discussing the book, and was fascinated, as why this novel was so enthralling! Fox seamlessly balances the horrific past with the present investigations, perfectly paced, and what an imagination, keeping you glued to the pages. This could be a TV series...

Not for the faint-hearted; however, if you love a compelling crime psychological thriller with a wicked evil twist….HADES is for you. Cannot wait to read EDEN, (have to wait until Aug 25, 2015 for release in Kindle format US), the next in the series, as we continue the saga with Eden and her partner Frank. Well done, an author to follow!

Fans of Jennifer Hillier, Paul Cleave, and Karin Slaughter will enjoy this one.

Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney's western suburbs composed of half-, adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers

Coming August 25, 2015 US

Most homicide detective teams run on trust, loyalty, and the shared desire to put killers behind bars. Frank Bennett's partner, Eden Archer, thrives on darkness and danger. She has a rare talent for catching killers - but her idea of justice has little to do with courtrooms.

Now three girls are missing, and Eden is going undercover to a remote farm where the troubled go to hide and blood falls more often than rain. Frank’s job is to keep an eye on his partner while she's there - but is it for Eden's protection, or to protect others from her? Walking a tightrope between duty and desperation, Frank confronts a threat from Eden’s past—the sadistic crime lord Hades, who raised her. Suddenly, the hunter is the hunted. And a killer’s vicious desires are about to be unleashed . . .