Set in the Scottish Highlands, “From the Shadows” is the first in what will be a series featuring D.I. Monica Kennedy. With ever increasing tension, the story is told through the alternating voices of Monica and Michael, with occasional chapters devoted to “The Watcher”, the ever-patient murderer who excels at watching and waiting as observes his victims’ movements.
In his debut novel G.R. Halliday has created an interesting main character. Monica is a single mother who is constantly faced with juggling parenthood and the unpredictable demands of stressful job. To achieve this, she relies heavily on her mother to help care for four-year-old Lucy, a dependence which creates some inevitable friction and ambivalence. Monica is over six feet tall and is very self-conscious about her height and appearance, imagining that, with her “gangly limbs, broad shoulders and pale skin” she is regarded by others as something of a freak. However, she also has a touch of vanity, as demonstrated by her determination to force her feet into too tight size 9 boots, rather than the size 10 they really need – the ongoing pain seem to her a small price to pay! Although there is rather too much focus on her physical appearance, there are tantalising hints throughout the story that there are some dark secrets in her past – I’m sure future books in the series will gradually reveal more! However, what does come through clearly is that she is a highly-motivated, determined and successful detective, one who is ready to trust her own instincts and ignore her superiors if she believes they are wrong. All are admirable qualities in a senior police officer but are ones which don’t sit easily with being a parent, leading to too many occasions when Monica feels guilty and her young daughter feels neglected.
Monica isn’t the only character with a troubled background: it soon becomes clear that Michael Bach’s background has some similarly dark elements and that he too is full of guilt and conflict. It’s hard to know whether he will feature in future stories, but I found myself hoping that he will as I found that his interactions with Monica, as they work together on the case, added an interesting dimension to the story and I can imagine them collaborating in future investigations. In addition to these two main characters, the author created several other interesting and credible characters, each of which played a part in either helping or thwarting the ongoing investigation – and I defy any reader not to fall in love with Colonel Mustard, the cat!
The plotting is satisfyingly full of twists, turns and frequent red-herrings and, although I guessed at quite an early stage who was helping the murderer, the identity of the perpetrator did come as a total surprise. I enjoyed the various references to Police Scotland procedures, especially to discovering that it is only in the Highlands where armed police regularly respond to non-emergency call-outs – I had no idea! There are times when some of the descriptions of injuries inflicted are explicitly gruesome, and themes of violence resonate throughout the story. As I prefer crime thrillers to be quite dark I didn’t find this off-putting however, I do realise that some readers probably would. I did find the final denouement rather rushed and found myself questioning the rather tenuous links which led to the exposure of the murderer. Nevertheless, I think that this debut novel promises a good start to the series and I look forward to learning more about what makes D.I. Monica Kennedy tick. However, I do hope that the continual references to her height, which permeated this story, won’t be repeated in future books – the axiom “less is more” is one to which the author should perhaps pay more attention!
As a final but important observation, I really appreciated the ways in which the author used the highly atmospheric setting of the Scottish Highlands to evoke a sense of brooding mystery, darkness and danger throughout the developing story.
In his debut novel G.R. Halliday has created an interesting main character. Monica is a single mother who is constantly faced with juggling parenthood and the unpredictable demands of stressful job. To achieve this, she relies heavily on her mother to help care for four-year-old Lucy, a dependence which creates some inevitable friction and ambivalence. Monica is over six feet tall and is very self-conscious about her height and appearance, imagining that, with her “gangly limbs, broad shoulders and pale skin” she is regarded by others as something of a freak. However, she also has a touch of vanity, as demonstrated by her determination to force her feet into too tight size 9 boots, rather than the size 10 they really need – the ongoing pain seem to her a small price to pay! Although there is rather too much focus on her physical appearance, there are tantalising hints throughout the story that there are some dark secrets in her past – I’m sure future books in the series will gradually reveal more! However, what does come through clearly is that she is a highly-motivated, determined and successful detective, one who is ready to trust her own instincts and ignore her superiors if she believes they are wrong. All are admirable qualities in a senior police officer but are ones which don’t sit easily with being a parent, leading to too many occasions when Monica feels guilty and her young daughter feels neglected.
Monica isn’t the only character with a troubled background: it soon becomes clear that Michael Bach’s background has some similarly dark elements and that he too is full of guilt and conflict. It’s hard to know whether he will feature in future stories, but I found myself hoping that he will as I found that his interactions with Monica, as they work together on the case, added an interesting dimension to the story and I can imagine them collaborating in future investigations. In addition to these two main characters, the author created several other interesting and credible characters, each of which played a part in either helping or thwarting the ongoing investigation – and I defy any reader not to fall in love with Colonel Mustard, the cat!
The plotting is satisfyingly full of twists, turns and frequent red-herrings and, although I guessed at quite an early stage who was helping the murderer, the identity of the perpetrator did come as a total surprise. I enjoyed the various references to Police Scotland procedures, especially to discovering that it is only in the Highlands where armed police regularly respond to non-emergency call-outs – I had no idea! There are times when some of the descriptions of injuries inflicted are explicitly gruesome, and themes of violence resonate throughout the story. As I prefer crime thrillers to be quite dark I didn’t find this off-putting however, I do realise that some readers probably would. I did find the final denouement rather rushed and found myself questioning the rather tenuous links which led to the exposure of the murderer. Nevertheless, I think that this debut novel promises a good start to the series and I look forward to learning more about what makes D.I. Monica Kennedy tick. However, I do hope that the continual references to her height, which permeated this story, won’t be repeated in future books – the axiom “less is more” is one to which the author should perhaps pay more attention!
As a final but important observation, I really appreciated the ways in which the author used the highly atmospheric setting of the Scottish Highlands to evoke a sense of brooding mystery, darkness and danger throughout the developing story.