Shot Through the Heart (DI Grace Fisher 2) by Isabelle Grey
| Shot Through the Heart (DI Grace Fisher 2) by Isabelle Grey | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A thought-provoking police procedural which surpassed my expectations. Definitely recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 416/11h49m | Date: September 2016 |
| Publisher: Quercus | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1786480019 | |
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In many ways it was horrific, but quite simple. On Christmas day a man with a rifle shot and killed five people: the first was his ex-wife's new partner, a local policeman, but the other four were simply people who happened to be around. He then went to the local churchyard and turned the gun on himself. Six dead, no perpetrator on the loose and it looks as though all that needs to be done is to give evidence at the inquest, but DI Grace Fisher can't leave it at that. She wants to know where Russell Fewell got the gun and the bullets: she's also not convinced about the honesty of the dead policeman and that's an unpopular attitude to have about a local hero.
It's a few years since I read an Isabelle Grey novel and I wasn't that impressed, but the DI Grace Fisher books have been getting some good press and seemed to be worth the investment of a few hours' reading. I'm glad I did as this time around I was far more satisfied. Grace Fisher makes a good heroine: she joined the police force to right wrongs, if that doesn't sound too simplistic, but she's increasingly finding that it's not that easy. She's also honest enough to recognise that the fine line between 'doing a favour for a friend' and 'corruption' doesn't just apply to other people and that sometimes you have to compromise your principles to get the result. Justice is rarely simple and not always just.
There's also a thought-provoking recognition that 'victims' are not just the people on the sharp end of a bullet: what about Davey Fewell, the young son of the killer, who will go through life as the child of a mass murderer? There's an added problem for Davey too: he didn't actually like Mark Kirby, his father's first victim, and he has a strange story about Kirby showing him a 'big gun' and telling him that it was their secret, that he mustn't tell anyone else. Davey told his father, who was furious - and then retracted his story, frightened that there was going to be trouble. He now feels a responsibility for what's happened. Davey's mother's a victim too: she's lost her new partner and her ex-husband, the father of her children: she knows that she's not going to be welcome in the town of Dunholt ever again.
The issue of police corruption is thought-provoking too. Is a police officer who accepts a free or cheap holiday, perhaps in difficult times and through a seemingly innocent source, corrupt? And how different is that from a gentle manipulation of a situation to get the result you want? Shot Through the Heart made me realise that it's difficult to achieve justice without compromises somewhere along the line. I read the book in a couple of sittings, resentful of the fact that it couldn't have been just one, and not only enjoyed the story but liked the fact that my mind had been pushed into some new corners. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
This is the second book in the DI Grace Fisher series: I haven't read the first (although I might remedy that) so I can't tell if there are spoilers for the earlier story in Shot Through the Heart, but it did read perfectly well as a standalone.
When you think of police procedurals there are a few names which spring to mind, but we've recently found some new names which we think are going to be worth watching. Have a look at Turning Blue by Benjamin Myers, Silent Scream by Angela Marsons, T F Muir's DCI Andy Gilchrist Novels, and Stephen Booth's Cooper and Fry Books.
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