A laboured third in the series and the sinister deaths of two promising students..
I have followed this series from the remarkably impressive launch of Detective Garda Cathy (“Cat”) Connolly onto the crime fiction landscape in Sam Blake’s arresting debut, Little Bones. After such a dynamic debut which introduced the feisty and spirited kickboxing champion, Cat, and juggled multiple plot strands narrated through multiple perspectives I was disappointed that the follow-up was a more plodding affair which had none of the vigour of the first. This third in the series makes for similarly laboured reading and in excess of four-hundred-pages it proved a slog to persevere until the rousing but very belated denouement.
No Turning Back opens with a bang with Detective Garda Cat Connolly of Dun Laoghaire station storming into the office of her superior and mentor, DI Declan O’Rourke, having been passed over for promotion to the newly created role of Forensic Profiler thanks to the Taoiseach’s nephew! In the midst of Cat’s fury the less than straightforward deaths of two students at Trinity College in the space of just a few hours in close proximity of each other propels her into a full-on caseload. Things become markedly more complicated when it transpires that both students are not only in the same year but studying the exact same subject. First of these is what appears to be the deliberate hit-and-run of gifted student, Tom Quinn, only son of the ultimate power couple, Orla and Conor Quinn, whilst out walking late at night. As ruthless businesswoman mother, Orla, struggles to comprehend what appears to be the wilful murder of her son with the car in question not only knocking down but reversing over Tom’s body, it is his father, Conor, whose agitation and less than helpful attitude shines through with a clear undercurrent of tension present in their palatial home. It is a mere few hours before the second discovery of shy farming lass and nineteen-year-old Lauren O’Reilly’s body at the bottom of an outcrop in Dillon’s Park hidden from the view of both overlooking houses and the road is discovered, with her chaotic landing, fear of water not to mention a bizarre message found on her person pointing towards having been pushed rather than jumped..
The narrative follows the investigation from the discovery of Tom’s body on Friday morning to the resounding conclusion on Thursday of the following week and is updated at certain stages throughout, with the specific date and time references given. With very few facts known and with post-mortem analysis, toxicology findings, recovery of CCTV, technical analysis of the paint flecks on Tom’s body and Lauren’s likely trajectory under scrutiny it means there is relatively little work for the police team in the first two days aside from a significant amount of conjecture on the part of Cat and O’Rourke. With the arrival of Sunday 7 a.m. circa the 150 page mark this pointless speculation on the basis of few substantiated facts becomes tiresome and is partly given over to the onerous backstory of Cat, which has little bearing on the unfolding focus of two students and their sudden deaths. Having read both of the previous novel this was unnecessary and given that it reads fine as a stand-alone it is unwarranted and merely acts as a drag of proceedings. In fact it is only at the halfway mark that the investigations begin to take shape with Garda Cat Connolly taking the lead in much of the campus and family focused investigation. Personally I found it a struggle to persevere with the real-time updates making for a painstakingly slow recounting in an admittedly tightly plotted novel.
Whilst I appreciate the accuracy of seeing the practicalities and frustrations of the wait for definitive facts in order to direct the focus it proved pretty mundane reading. As the novel increasingly hones in on the Quinn family and their complex dynamic with close friends, Ronan and Karen Delaney and Lauren’s predicament it does pick up the pace with Professor Lockharte’s CIA contact just one of the law enforcement agencies who are brought together in an attempt to head off a remarkably mobile killer with an audacious feat in the pipeline..
Narrated almost entirely in the third-person and focusing on Cathy and her part in the unfolding action, occasional chapters are presented from the perspective of Professor Anna Lockharte, course tutor for both Tom and Lauren with a troubled history of PTSD and panic attacks following the death of her sister in a terrorist incident and with an ambassadorial brother-in-law. A third perspective into the unfolding double investigation is marked in italics and tells of the frankly scary ambitions of the perpetrator and conveys his arrogance and contempt for those whose lives he meddles in with his money-spinning and illegal activities on the Dark Web as part of a hacking collective intent on notoriety.
With Cat injured at the end of the second novel and having been forced to take a year out from the competitive kickboxing circuit her personal focus is on retaking her crown in the upcoming National Kickboxing Championship, however as much of her contemplation is given over to her pining for her superior, DI O’Rourke, with whom she has shared occasional fleeting kisses but never progressed further. I did wonder where the fiesty and sassy Cat of book one had disappeared to during reading as the will they/won’t they speculation of Cat injected an element of romantic suspense. I found myself missing the antics of Cat’s all male housemates and her brothers who in previous novels added levity.
Although it appears that both Detective Garda Cat Connolly and DI Declan O’Rourke are both heading to pastures new with the potential of the recruitment by the Emergency Response Unit of Cat and O’Rourke’s promotion to Superintendent in Limerick, I doubt I will read more of this series. Once the backstory and pure conjecture of much of the first half was navigated from an entirely personal point of view I found the focus on the computer hacking across numerous countries and the logistics pretty dull. Much of that is to do with having difficulty relating on any practical level to the topic and aside from a high-octane denouement I found the content rather less than thrilling and having played a significant part in many recent crime fiction novels, as befitting its part in the modern world of crime, all rather familiar.
Full credit goes to Sam Blake however for obviously getting to grips with the specifics and conveying the formidable abilities of those who gets their kicks from computer hacking and think they are untouchable but neither bargain on human error or raw emotion. Topical stuff but however much I can appreciate the sheer destructive potential and its impact on everyday lives, it did not make for personally engaging reading. On the basis of the well-executed second half and the depth on hacking research I feel duty bound to give a 3 star rating.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.
No Turning Back opens with a bang with Detective Garda Cat Connolly of Dun Laoghaire station storming into the office of her superior and mentor, DI Declan O’Rourke, having been passed over for promotion to the newly created role of Forensic Profiler thanks to the Taoiseach’s nephew! In the midst of Cat’s fury the less than straightforward deaths of two students at Trinity College in the space of just a few hours in close proximity of each other propels her into a full-on caseload. Things become markedly more complicated when it transpires that both students are not only in the same year but studying the exact same subject. First of these is what appears to be the deliberate hit-and-run of gifted student, Tom Quinn, only son of the ultimate power couple, Orla and Conor Quinn, whilst out walking late at night. As ruthless businesswoman mother, Orla, struggles to comprehend what appears to be the wilful murder of her son with the car in question not only knocking down but reversing over Tom’s body, it is his father, Conor, whose agitation and less than helpful attitude shines through with a clear undercurrent of tension present in their palatial home. It is a mere few hours before the second discovery of shy farming lass and nineteen-year-old Lauren O’Reilly’s body at the bottom of an outcrop in Dillon’s Park hidden from the view of both overlooking houses and the road is discovered, with her chaotic landing, fear of water not to mention a bizarre message found on her person pointing towards having been pushed rather than jumped..
The narrative follows the investigation from the discovery of Tom’s body on Friday morning to the resounding conclusion on Thursday of the following week and is updated at certain stages throughout, with the specific date and time references given. With very few facts known and with post-mortem analysis, toxicology findings, recovery of CCTV, technical analysis of the paint flecks on Tom’s body and Lauren’s likely trajectory under scrutiny it means there is relatively little work for the police team in the first two days aside from a significant amount of conjecture on the part of Cat and O’Rourke. With the arrival of Sunday 7 a.m. circa the 150 page mark this pointless speculation on the basis of few substantiated facts becomes tiresome and is partly given over to the onerous backstory of Cat, which has little bearing on the unfolding focus of two students and their sudden deaths. Having read both of the previous novel this was unnecessary and given that it reads fine as a stand-alone it is unwarranted and merely acts as a drag of proceedings. In fact it is only at the halfway mark that the investigations begin to take shape with Garda Cat Connolly taking the lead in much of the campus and family focused investigation. Personally I found it a struggle to persevere with the real-time updates making for a painstakingly slow recounting in an admittedly tightly plotted novel.
Whilst I appreciate the accuracy of seeing the practicalities and frustrations of the wait for definitive facts in order to direct the focus it proved pretty mundane reading. As the novel increasingly hones in on the Quinn family and their complex dynamic with close friends, Ronan and Karen Delaney and Lauren’s predicament it does pick up the pace with Professor Lockharte’s CIA contact just one of the law enforcement agencies who are brought together in an attempt to head off a remarkably mobile killer with an audacious feat in the pipeline..
Narrated almost entirely in the third-person and focusing on Cathy and her part in the unfolding action, occasional chapters are presented from the perspective of Professor Anna Lockharte, course tutor for both Tom and Lauren with a troubled history of PTSD and panic attacks following the death of her sister in a terrorist incident and with an ambassadorial brother-in-law. A third perspective into the unfolding double investigation is marked in italics and tells of the frankly scary ambitions of the perpetrator and conveys his arrogance and contempt for those whose lives he meddles in with his money-spinning and illegal activities on the Dark Web as part of a hacking collective intent on notoriety.
With Cat injured at the end of the second novel and having been forced to take a year out from the competitive kickboxing circuit her personal focus is on retaking her crown in the upcoming National Kickboxing Championship, however as much of her contemplation is given over to her pining for her superior, DI O’Rourke, with whom she has shared occasional fleeting kisses but never progressed further. I did wonder where the fiesty and sassy Cat of book one had disappeared to during reading as the will they/won’t they speculation of Cat injected an element of romantic suspense. I found myself missing the antics of Cat’s all male housemates and her brothers who in previous novels added levity.
Although it appears that both Detective Garda Cat Connolly and DI Declan O’Rourke are both heading to pastures new with the potential of the recruitment by the Emergency Response Unit of Cat and O’Rourke’s promotion to Superintendent in Limerick, I doubt I will read more of this series. Once the backstory and pure conjecture of much of the first half was navigated from an entirely personal point of view I found the focus on the computer hacking across numerous countries and the logistics pretty dull. Much of that is to do with having difficulty relating on any practical level to the topic and aside from a high-octane denouement I found the content rather less than thrilling and having played a significant part in many recent crime fiction novels, as befitting its part in the modern world of crime, all rather familiar.
Full credit goes to Sam Blake however for obviously getting to grips with the specifics and conveying the formidable abilities of those who gets their kicks from computer hacking and think they are untouchable but neither bargain on human error or raw emotion. Topical stuff but however much I can appreciate the sheer destructive potential and its impact on everyday lives, it did not make for personally engaging reading. On the basis of the well-executed second half and the depth on hacking research I feel duty bound to give a 3 star rating.
With thanks to Readers First who provided me with a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.