After a grass fire, the charred
body of a pre-teen boy is found in a barn in the Lake District. Detective Chief Inspector Jude Satterthwaite leads
the investigation. His team includes
Detective Sergeant Ashleigh O’Halloran who has just joined the police force in
the area. They soon determine that his
death was not accidental. But who is the
boy? Why was he not reported
missing? As the investigators search for
the murderer, they take some wrong turns and another death occurs. Of course, eventually all secrets are
uncovered.
The mystery is not difficult to
solve; in fact, it is rather predictable.
Because there are not that many characters, the suspect pool is
small. And the clues tend to be too
obvious. The only real mystery is the
motive and exactly how the murderer carried out the crimes.
What detracts from the case is
Jude and Ashleigh’s personal lives. Both
are recovering from relationships that ended recently, but they have not moved
on. As a result, they spend a lot of
time thinking about their previous partners.
As expected, there is an immediate attraction between Jude and Ashleigh
when they meet so it is not difficult to predict what will happen. This is supposedly the first book of a series
so, undoubtedly, subsequent books will develop the romance. I’d definitely have preferred less focus on
romance.
I did not find that I warmed to
either of the two main characters. Jude
is handsome and intelligent but he just doesn’t come across as a warm
person. We are told that he has “too
strong a conscience” and is “too uncompromising on too many fronts.” He is certainly driven by duty. Ashleigh is supposedly the strong female lead
but some of her behaviour, especially towards the victim’s mother, is unprofessional. Members of the police team like her almost
immediately, but I don’t understand the appeal other than the fact that she is attractive.
There are some needless
repetitions in the book. Over and over
we are told that Jude’s romantic relationship suffered because “there had
always been a part of his soul that he’d held back”: “Sometimes the bleakness of his chosen path
was too great for comfort, some of the things he saw too grim to share.” Ashleigh’s interest in tarot cards comes up
again and again. Some judicious editing
would be useful.
Mediocre is the adjective that
best describes the book. It is not
terrible, but there is really nothing to differentiate it from so many other
similar books.
Note: I received a digital galley of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.
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