My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an unusual police crime thriller, following DS Kate Redman. Kate has just changed jobs and is now Detective Sergeant in a local unit. Her first case is one she struggles with that immediately pulls at her heart strings, someone has murdered a nanny and kidnaps Charley, a three-month-old baby. With no ransom note and a lot of potential suspects, this is quite a super-sleuth novel, keeping the armchair expert guessing to the end.
This is much more of a TV drama type crime story, Frost or Jonathan Creek style plot. Without too much gore or aggression present but enough mystery, frustration, red-herrings and humours to keep the reader guessing and judging the characters.
The story had an interesting plot, with lots of drama from the first page. This novel is incredibly well written, particularly as the first in a series as the story stands up very well on its own. The writing style is very easy to read, straight forward and quick-paced.
The characters are incredibly well written and I can see them easily returning in future novels in the series. Kate particularly is a well thought it character with a complicated personal life, a mother who is a drunk and secrets that Kate hopes to keep that way. The only character who I wasn’t too impressed with was Olbeck, he played a critical character at certain stages of the book but his character itself seemed a bit stale, hopefully that is just the author leaving room for his character to grow in future novels.
These books will appeal to fans of MC Beaton or Kate Ellis style writing; not too dark or gritty, but still quick-paced, crime thriller with a very smart plot, a smart character and plenty of action.
New2Writing 