This debut is a police procedural where we kind of sit on the shoulder of the lead detective.
It is not structured like other similar types of books that I’ve read though. Perhaps this should be confusing, but it wasn’t – it was intriguing as it didn’t go as I presumed it would. And I liked that a lot.
When you read 3-400 books a year, you get used to the various trope conventions – and this one broke the rules. In my opinion, it benefitted from that rule breaking.
The crime was not overly complicated. The reader makes a better detective than the lead – Karen. We can see what has happened but we have to wait for her to catch up with us.
Karen is also dealing with understand her feelings about her relationship with a man that appears to work away and just pop back when he needs somewhere to stay. She is attracted to a woman but can’t entertain coming out – especially at work. She struggles with a sense of needing to comply with her internal rules which seem to be comphet and internalised homophobia. While you could say that is all a bit 1990s – I suspect it could soon be a valid concern again as misogyny and homophobia rears it head much higher in the coming years.

This book is interesting, a good debut and enjoyable.