Sometimes a book comes along that makes you just sit down and read, from cover to cover, with as few breaks as you can manage. This is one of those books.
I’ve tried to analyse why I enjoyed this book so much.
Yes it has a cracking story.
Yes the characters are good, easy to engage with, and very likeable.
But, I can say that about a lot of books that haven’t hooked me like this one did.
So without being too analytical, the only thing I can put it down to is, this is a bloody good story.
Morgan Brookes is a young PC on her first independent patrol. A call comes in and she is first on the scene at an “apparent” suicide, finding a teenage boy trying to support the weight of a woman who has hung herself from a tree.
The usually grumpy DS Ben Matthews arrives at the scene and takes over as SIO. He’s as much impressed with Morgan’s efforts as he is annoyed with an experienced PC‘s, and when his boss says he can take one of the uniform officers into a temporary CID post he makes the unusual decision to give Morgan a chance.
This, I think, is where the story finds that edge that had me hooked. As much as Morgan wants the CID job it brings with it challenges. She hasn’t had years of experience to become acclimatised to the worst of crime scenes. She still hasn’t really got the street smarts that let her judge the character of some of the people she meets, and of course, she meets some hostility from one of the uniform officers who believes he should have got the post.
As the investigation goes on, one thing that does become apparent, is that Morgan has a good analytical brain. She is tenacious in tracking down what she thinks is important, even if others dismiss her ideas.
The suicide turns out to be murder, but it’s not the only one. The story that follows could be straight off the front page of the papers. In fact strangely enough there has been something similar in the news over the last two weekends.
There is no “shark infested custard”, no illogical twists, no unrealistic moments, just a story that flows really well.
I always write that the books I enjoy most have to be realistic, and some will say that a PC would never be given the opportunity Morgan is given, but they would. That leads me to another thought.
Who will be the first author to write a story about the new breed of detective being employed by the police, the Police Civilian Investigator.
Whoever it is they will have to cover all of the issues Morgan faces in this book, but with absolutely zero Policing experience.
I loved this book, all I can hope for is it’s the beginning of a long series. The characters deserve it.
Pages: 332. Publishers: Bookouture. Published: 1st September 2020
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