Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for this hotly anticipated ARC.

Serial killer Rhiannon Lewis who has no filter but trademark kill lists (agree with the Daisy Daisy Daisy advert!) is back for a fifth and final time and what a tour de force it has been! It's advisable to read the books in order as we're straight in after a cliffhanger with no time for a summary. 

We had left Rhiannon in San Diego but planning to fly to Mexico with her husband. Then everything changes, first by the news that her little girl Ivy is critically ill over in the UK and only she can help, and then someone shooting Rafael. She decides that Ivy needs her more so leaves him to recuperate in hospital and flies to London, accompanied by Billy, an Irish ex-army charmer who served with Raf in Afghanistan until his legs got blown off. This means it's a book almost entirely without Raf and he is sorely missed.

Instead we get to see more of her difficult sister Seren and ice maiden Nnedi Géricault, the arch nemesis police officer who has never let go. The developments with the two are jaw-droppingly unexpected and weren't on my Sweetpea bingo card!

As the title suggests, we hear a lot more about the "bad seeds", the international Sweetpea fan club of mostly women, whose horrendous stories are told in their own words throughout the book. I don't know whether a vigilante serial killer would be that revered in real life and people would really protect her from the law but this novel shows that whatever we think of Sweetpea's violence, the problem she is responding to is real and widespread and horrific.

This book is a completely different beast to first book Sweetpea, in which Rhiannon was unhinged, unhappy and killing everyone who just looked at her wrongly. She has come a long way since then and continues to come to terms with her traumatic past and her difficult family who never loved her the way she deserved.

There is tension and heartache aplenty, we get fabulous supporting characters, surprising alliances, piggie Richard E. Grunt, bad men, good men and dogs. This book contains every emotion between love and rage and details how much we need other people around us and being part of a community and having self-worth and trust.

I think we get the perfect ending but we are also reminded of the fact that Rhiannon and Raf's life is not sustainable that way and sooner or later it will catch up with them, no matter how many "bad seeds" look out for them. 

Rhiannon has stolen our hearts by not simply being a killing machine but a human being whose life changed when she was six years old and who only ever wanted to be loved and have control over her life. Thank you for the darkly humourous ride, it's been a blast.