Dead Head (Sweetpea #3) by C. J. Skuse

Format: Audio (BorrowBox)
Read: September 2025

Now three books in, I realise I’m hooked on Rhiannon and I’m very invested in what she’s getting up to. I never know if that might be some sweet domestic scenes with an ex-cartel killer or cutting up bodies, but either way, I’m happy to be there with her!

Picking from the events at the end of the last book, Rhiannon must learn to adapt to her new life on the run while she’s still postpartum and processing giving up baby Ivy. She must work out what her freedom is worth, as she must leave Rhiannon behind and try on new identities.

The story is really in two parts. In the first half, she is on a cruise ship and there is a lot of fun in her trying to navigate relationships with her fellow travellers and take on her newly invented persona of Hiliary the Australian. She makes friends with a rich old lady, who becomes the first of the parental figures she instinctively tries to moor herself too. Their relationship is quite sweet, and it paved the way for some emotional growth and gave her a different framework for love.

In the second part of the story, she ends up in Mexico with an ex-cartel guy who becomes another parental figure. Here, while awaiting surgery to complete her transformation to a new identity, she eventually settles into a domestic routine and learns to better control her violent urges. In particular, there is one character that pushes all her rage buttons, and I was willing her not to fuck things up!

Meanwhile, in the UK, she is all over the news as the Sweetpea Killer, following the confession diaries she left with Freddie the journalist at the end of the previous book. Now she has a cult following (murdering rapists and pedophiles is something people can get behind), and she can’t resist checking the internet for news and Reddit threads discussing opinions and theories. Her unhinged fans are called the Bad Seeds and are causing problems of their own.

There is still plenty of violence and fucked up Rhiannon shit in this book, but I really appreciate the self-reflection and growth. It started in In Bloom, and it really does continue in a satisfying way. With each book, C.J. Skuse seems to develop more understanding of her character.

This one has some crazy action in it. The climax to the story is wild! When reading Sweetpea, I never predicted we’d end up tangled with the cartel, but hey!

It also seems a promising new relationship for her, but that situation comes with its own complications for keeping her no-kill streak, as does some news from Seren. The ending leaves this wide open to continue the story in the next book!

I’m so glad I switched to audio for these; the narrator, Georgia Maguire, is excellent. Although the editors missed editing out a portion where the narrator questions the pronunciation of lieutenant when she’s reading a British character reading a letter from an American!