Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

“Nothing and nobody were what they seemed in this investigation; everyone was wearing a mask, including, he realised, himself.”

I think I need to go for a lie down after this! I really enjoyed this mystery – Matthieu Lombard is one hell of a main character and probably one of the strongest I’ve read in a book like this. It’s a complex read with many characters to follow, but once you become acquainted with everyone, it really is quite addictive. I’m so happy to be sharing my review of Dead Behind The Eyes for my spot on the Instagram tour with Insta Book Tours! Make sure you check out all the other fabulous reviews from everyone on the tour ⬇️

About the book

A decapitated body washes up on the banks of the River Loire, in the ancient city centre of Tours.

With no-one else available, a reluctant Lombard is brought in to lead the investigation, as the victim – friendless and unclaimed – is given more attention in death than in life

When Lombard’s young niece appears, he is drawn also into another world, of eco-terrorism, bio-medical research, French aristocracy and the violent, forgotten underbelly of society.

Now it’s no longer a question of just his own future, it’s everyone else’s too.

Can the brutal murder of a lonely man, revealing uncomfortable truths about Lombard’s own life, really be part of a plan to save the planet? Or are seemingly good intentions hiding darker motives, far more cynical and more deadly?

The beginning

Straight away, Ian’s unique writing style laced with wit slapped me in the face and completely pulled me in. It was really something else! And as we’re introduced to our main character and “juge d’instruction“, Matthieu Lombard, it felt as though I’d known him forever. Even though this is the second book in the Juge Lombard mystery series, it didn’t feel like I was lagging behind. Getting to know the type of guy Lombard is and the job he’s committed to was easy; we can really understand him through every clever description, every conversation, the way he acts in a given situation. He also has his demons which we slowly begin to learn as the book progresses. When a body missing a head (grim) washes up on the banks of the River Loire, Lombard steps in and so begins a huge investigation into identifying the body and finding out what happened. I loved the mystery elements and as more information is gathered, Lombard comes to realise he’s more like the deceased than he’d care to admit.

“He knew what his problem was. He’d known it the minute he had seen the eyes of the dead man on the driving licence. They weren’t that dissimilar.”

There are a lot of French terms thrown at you from the start which confused the hell out of me at first and resulted in a lot of Googling, but thankfully I got used to it all after a while. I really liked the location; a crime/mystery book based in France is not something I’ve come across before but I felt I could really see everything and feel the atmosphere. As well as working on the ‘headless case’ as I’ve now come to refer to it as, Lombard is tasked with helping to find the missing daughter of a wealthy family. Could these two cases be linked in some way? It doesn’t seem so on the surface, but I was curious to see where the author takes these two investigations. And what’s more to add to all this responsibility, Lombard’s niece, Elise, shows up out of the blue. The opening to the book was excellent – I was curious and excited for what was to come for these characters, and it was clear this author would make it a journey to remember.

The middle

Lombard goes through A LOT and I thought he could have done with a massive hug at times (although, because of the perfect character development, I knew he wouldn’t let me if I tried!) He receives messages and notes from a mysterious person, he’s knocked unconscious, and he just can’t seem to catch a break in the headless case. And it’s driving him mad. Who was sending these messages to him? The news of the headless corpse hadn’t yet gone to press and only very few people knew about it. Could these notes be written by someone closer to home? There’s even another murder, the horrific description and detail making things so real, so easy to visualise. This book quickly became one of those which you think about when you’re not reading. The others on Lombard’s investigating team were brilliant additions to a strong cast of characters – they all had really distinctive personalities and brought so much to the story.

“I don’t understand you, Lombard. You have my pants down, my hands tied behind my back and me bent over a barrel and all you’re capable of doing is kissing me on the neck.”

As things progress, we’re reminded of that brilliant opening chapter and the characters who made it so tense. There’s new information, new clues, and even potential evidence to suggest the headless corpse could have been tampered with (aside from missing a head, that is.) However, with strict instructions to stick to the missing girl case, Lombard struggles to keep himself away from the case he’d become so attached to, the one that had occupied his mind for so long. At this point, I loved getting to know the Daucourt family and their dynamic, and think of all the different reasons why Rosa could be missing. We slowly learn of subtle links to both cases and I was truly hooked by this point. I needed to know answers, I needed to get to the bottom of who was responsible for the decapitation and multiple murders, whether Rosa really was missing or whether she’d fled for some other reason. Things were heating up in so many ways. Could Lombard find the truth without jeopardising his career and making more enemies?

The end

A vital connection is made between two different characters and the reveal was so beautifully explored; the answers were all there, I just failed to see them. The complexity of the investigations and those involved with them, directly or indirectly, was such a brilliant thing to explore. It was a mind-bending, clever part of the book. The little details in the clues (that book?! IYKYK) had me letting out the odd “wow” under my breath. Even characters we meet at this point stuck with me and were such crucial pieces of the whole puzzle. The author continued to stun me with so many impressive little details. The suspense, the reveals, the tension as the story came to a close was just off the scale at times. The detail in every scene, the twists when you think you have everything worked out will make your jaw drop, I guarantee. I still didn’t guess where the ending would go!

“Was he saving them? Or was he saving himself from having to confront emotion he didn’t feel strong enough to handle?”

With one final body discovered without an ID, another shock to the system, I knew it was only a matter of time before there was an expert wrap up of events, and boy did we get it with bells on. It was so incredibly satisfying. The ending chapters were fast but perfectly paced, and had me reading faster as a result. The book ends up being so much deeper than finding the identity of a headless man and working out his killer, my favourite element being who is involved in shocking bio-medical research. It is truly horrific but fascinating in equal measure. I felt the first chapter and one of the last comes full circle. Just you wait! There is some light within all the darkness as we see in the final few pages, and I knew this wasn’t the end for Lombard. And I for one would truly welcome more books in the series! I think I’ll definitely pick up book one in the series – I’m very curious about it!

Overall thoughts

Dead Behind the Eyes is a deeply explored mystery set in Tours, France, with an engaging plot and a brilliant cast of characters to love and to suspect. It’s the second book in the Juge Lombard mystery series, but it’s a great standalone book too. It blends the complexities of a brutal murder investigation with eco-terrorism, bio-medical research and French aristocracy, and although it may seem a lot on the surface, the author effortlessly makes it work. The author has a unique entertaining and humourous edge to his writing which is one of the huge reasons why I loved picking this book back up every day. A new author on my radar! A truly thrilling, unpredictable ride, one I’d hugely recommend for crime/mystery lovers.

Huge thank you to the author, Ian Moore, Duckworth Books and of course, Insta Book Tours for having me on the tour and for my proof copy! You can grab your own copy of Dead Behind the Eyes right now on Amazon or wherever you buy your books. Make sure you’re following Ian over on X/Twitter and Instagram for more updates!

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