The Close (DS Maeve Kerrigan) by Jane Casey
| The Close (DS Maeve Kerrigan) by Jane Casey | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: It's number ten in the series and it's a cracker. Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 416 | Date: March 2023 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0008404970 | |
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It was because of Rula Jacques that DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent were living together in Jellicoe Close.
If you're a regular reader of the Maeve Kerrigan series you'll have read that sentence twice and wondered if it's a massive spoiler because there is a delicious sexual chemistry between the two which seems very, very real. But (there's always a 'but', isn't there?) Josh has a partner and he dotes on her son, even if the relationship with Melissa can be a little rocky. As for Maeve, she's just come out of an abusive relationship which has left her more than a little uncertain.
So, how come they're living together and what has the woman who's assistant to the mayor of London got to do with it? Well, the body of her thirty-three-year-old brother-in-law has been found and so far his death has been written off as another homeless man whose emaciated body had turned up in a derelict building. Case closed. Rula is not going to accept this. Davy Bidwell had spent some time living with an old lady on Jellicoe Close and no one seems to know what happened when he left there. There had been half a dozen men of a similar age who'd done exactly the same thing and no one knows where they are, either. Kerrigan and Derwent are undercover in this lovely suburban street where the bin men coming early caused a scandal.
Only, it's not actually the way it seems. When you look carefully - and that's what Josh and Maeve have to do to see if another lodger turns up - there are a few things which they'd follow up on in other circumstances. They can't though: Josh's cover is that he's a security consultant who works from home and Maeve is his stay-at-home girlfriend and they're dog-sitting for a friend whilst she's away on business. So - they've got to be convincing in those roles and appear to be in a romantic relationship, which they might both actually quite like - or not - but which, for professional reasons, can't come about.
I hope you've got all that clear because you've got to add into the mix that Maeve is actually trying to do her normal job remotely. Currently, she's investigating the murder of a hospital consultant, Hassan Dawoud, whose body was found in his car in the hospital car park. She's doing this through DC Georgia Shaw, who talked as if she was paid by the word.
It's a book to binge on: I couldn't stop reading. I loved the characterisation: Casey handles what occasionally seems like a cast of thousands with aplomb. Kerrigan is a brilliant character but I was most impressed by Derwent. He's arrogant. You suspect he could be dangerous to be around but the tension between him and Kerrigan could be bottled and sold with a cork that needs a wire cage. The plotting is perfect: I had no idea who was going to end up on the wrong side of the law until it was there in black and white and despite all the clues being there. The story is exquisitely put together. When it's said that we're currently in the second golden age of crime writing, this is one of the main series that's driving the thought. I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.
You could read this book as a standalone but you'd get the most out of it if you started at the beginning.
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