View source for Never Forget by Lisa Cutts

{{infobox1
|title=Never Forget
|author=Lisa Cutts
|reviewer=Sue Magee
|genre=Crime
|summary=A police procedural written by a police insider and which stays true to how it really happens without sacrificing pace. It's the start of a series and we reckon it's going to be one to watch.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=416
|publisher=Myriad Editions
|date=July 2013
|isbn=978-1908434265
|website=http://www.lisacutts.co.uk/Lisa_Cutts___Award_Winning_Kent_Based_Crime_Author.html
|cover=1908434260
|aznuk=1908434260
|aznus=B00CCTWR8U
}}

DC Nina Foster isn't ''that'' unusual in the police force.  She's perhaps a little overweight and a little too fond of wine.  Her relationships don't tend to last but then the unpredictable hours which the job demands don't help in that area.  She has some good friends within the force - part camaraderie, part common interest and a lot of knowledge that that these are the people you might be relying on in an emergency.  Nina does have one secret though and it relates back to her childhood.  She does her best not to give what happened to her any room in her head and most of the time it works.  Most people have no idea about her history.  Then a frenzied stabbing pulls Nina into her first murder investigation and the Major Incident Room.

I've muttered before about the lone cop - usually of about Inspector level - who has serious personal problems and who, against all the odds, against the specific instructions of his superiors, goes out there and solves a major crime all on his own and then survives to do it all again in the next book in the series.  It might make good reading (and should probably be shelved with the fantasy books, rather than crime and certainly not with the police procedurals) but it simply doesn't happen that way.  A murder investigation is a team effort.  A lot of it is sheer drudgery and paperwork.  Generally that doesn't make for good reading but Lisa Cutts is an insider in the Kent police force and she's delivered a good story that stays true to the way that it really happens.

There's an acknowledgement too that major enquiries like this one (the body count rises quite rapidly) don't come along that often.  A senior officer says that it's probably the only chance that most officers will get to work on such an enquiry - which rather goes against the idea that they happen regularly enough to individual officers to produce an annual hardback for the Christmas market.  But it's the rarity of the opportunity which makes Nina want to stay involved when the long finger of what happened in her childhood reaches forward and jabs her in the ribs.  You might be wondering about all the paperwork I mentioned - well, it's all there but Cutts doesn't allow it to slow down her story at all.  It's very pacy: short chapters and rapid changes of scene keep you on your toes.

The book impressed me, but I'd a couple of minor quibbles.  Occasionally the dialogue read a little woodenly, but that improved considerably as soon as the story got into its stride.  It's almost inevitable that in a plot like this one it will seem that there's a cast of thousands and I did have trouble keeping track of who was who, even quite late into the story.  It is though a book you'll read again - you might know the name of the villain, but you'll read for the pleasure of seeing how it was all done.  Fortunately too it's the first book in a planned series and I'm looking forward to seeing how Cutts develops.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more crime from another police insider we can recommend looking at anything by [[:Category:Elizabeth Haynes|Elizabeth Haynes]].  Start with [[Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes|Into the Darkest Corner]].

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