Straight off I’m going to say this is one of my favourite series. I enjoyed the original books set in Birmingham, and these Dorset based books.
The Dorset books are neither a continuation of the Birmingham books, or a separate series, they are very much a spin-off with overlapping characters.
Rachel McLean has a way of making realistic, normal paced, modern policing exciting.
She has a great skill for a flamboyant murder scene which always puts a different spin on the scene examination.
But what I think she has mastered is the ability to take a very thin twine of a thread of a story, and weave it through all of her books.
As with the Birmingham series there is the hint of Police misdoings. A problem that is niggling away at DCI Lesley Clarke, a problem that her boss seems to want her to look into, but at the same time won’t acknowledge the exists.
In each of the Dorset series this thread is intertwined with the main crime to be investigated.
I mentioned flamboyant scenes. The first murder victim in this book is found spread eagled over the local landmark, the Swanage Globe.
An architect has had his throat cut and a note has been left with the body, Go Home, is written in his own blood.
The fact that the victim is black, and the words on the note, instantly raise the possibility of a race crime. But he’s an out-of-towner working on a controversial project, so the reference to going home may not be race based.
With the investigation team split between the two hypotheses cracks start to appear.
Can Clarke keep everything together, the team, the main investigation, the side investigation into a crime that may not even have happened, and her relationship with a criminal defence barrister who just happens to be representing one of her main suspects.
What a book, and what a clever ending………..
I can’t wait for the next one.
Pages: 352. Publisher: Ackroyd Publishing. Available now.
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