Superb, police procedural with really endearing characters!
Jane Casey is the multi award winning author of the superb police procedurals featuring Detective Sergeant Maeve Kerrigan and her boss/colleague Detective Inspector Josh Derwent. “The Cutting Place” is the ninth outing in the popular and absorbing series and my second after recently reading the brilliant “Cruel Acts”.
Although any of these books can be read as a stand-alone, I do believe there’s a special enjoyment of following characters and even though this was only my second visit with Maeve, I truly felt it was like wearing a comfortable slipper, I was so at home with everyone and genuinely felt I knew all the characters personally.
Alongside the police procedural part of the plot, we were privy to very deep personal storylines for both Maeve and Josh and it was this that had my emotions all over the place. Heartbreaking and endearing on many levels, the author did a fabulous job of weaving these into the polished and well executed criminal story involving domestic abuse and the power of men in the upper echelons of a private society. The opening chapter about the mudlarking on the Thames I found fascinating and set the scene for the story perfectly, with a grisly discovery on the banks of the river.
I adore the relationship between Maeve and Josh, which swings between a friendship, work partnership and a possible but highly unlikely love affair. The comaraderie is perfect and the fact that they both respect each other to extreme points, just shows how much effort and thought Jane has endeavoured to include in her characters personas.
Easy to follow, a pleasure to read and very realistic and believable I thoroughly enjoyed “The Cutting Place” from start to finish and felt quite bereft when it came to an end!
An absolute genius of a masterpiece in British crime writing with the added X Factor and a series and author I intend to follow fully. I shall be reading all seven previous books and really can’t wait to get going.
5 exceptional shiny gold stars for this belter of a book.
Although any of these books can be read as a stand-alone, I do believe there’s a special enjoyment of following characters and even though this was only my second visit with Maeve, I truly felt it was like wearing a comfortable slipper, I was so at home with everyone and genuinely felt I knew all the characters personally.
Alongside the police procedural part of the plot, we were privy to very deep personal storylines for both Maeve and Josh and it was this that had my emotions all over the place. Heartbreaking and endearing on many levels, the author did a fabulous job of weaving these into the polished and well executed criminal story involving domestic abuse and the power of men in the upper echelons of a private society. The opening chapter about the mudlarking on the Thames I found fascinating and set the scene for the story perfectly, with a grisly discovery on the banks of the river.
I adore the relationship between Maeve and Josh, which swings between a friendship, work partnership and a possible but highly unlikely love affair. The comaraderie is perfect and the fact that they both respect each other to extreme points, just shows how much effort and thought Jane has endeavoured to include in her characters personas.
Easy to follow, a pleasure to read and very realistic and believable I thoroughly enjoyed “The Cutting Place” from start to finish and felt quite bereft when it came to an end!
An absolute genius of a masterpiece in British crime writing with the added X Factor and a series and author I intend to follow fully. I shall be reading all seven previous books and really can’t wait to get going.
5 exceptional shiny gold stars for this belter of a book.