She by Pete Brassett

The briefly titled She is the first book I have read by Pete Brassett and it’s also the first in a crime series (Di Munro and DS West). As an introduction – to ongoing characters and their partnership – it serves the reader well. Detective Inspector Munro is an experienced cop and Scotsman who doesn’t suffer fools and enjoys taking those new to his team under his wing, albeit in a particular way. It would be easy to believe the man had been a teacher in a former life as everything becomes a lesson which demonstrates his superior knowledge and ability – often at the expense of those with less time on the force. In this book, the person on the receiving end of most of his lessons in policing is Detective Sergeant West. Coming across from financial crimes, it appears she has a lot to learn and that Munroe is just the fellow to teach her, especially when it seems they have a very gruesome serial killer on the loose – a woman, no less – the “She” of the title.

Written in alternating viewpoints, from someone very familiar with the suspect as well as in the third person when the crimes are being investigating, it makes for engaging reading – most of the time. At other times, I found it a little clichéd: the old, grumpy male cop with young, enthusiastic female partner who not only seemed to make some basic errors of judgement, but relishes the experience and wisdom of her older counterpart. For someone who reached the rank of Sergeant, I found West’s naiveté and sometimes stupidity a little hard to swallow and felt there were sexist overtones in her portrayal which rankled. Still, you do end up feeling very fond of DI Munroe as his intentions are not to humiliate but genuinely improve his colleague’s performance and as West grows into her role, you invest in her as well.

Enough to ensure I purchased the next book in the series.

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Book Review: Suspect, Michael Robotham

Having read Michael Robotham’s Joe ‘O’Loughlin books our of order (I literally read Say You’re Sorry, the latest, first – and loved it – see earlier review), I found I didn’t enjoy this first in the series as much as I feel I probably should.

Don’t get me wrong – this is a tautly written, gripping thriller that takes you on a roller-coaster ride as we’re introduced to the recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s, psychologist, Joe O’Loughlin. Dealing with this advancing neurological disease and the fact it will steal precious time with his beloved family is bad enough, but when Joe discovers that a woman who once accused him of sexual assault has been murdered, and all the clues as to her killer lead to him, time works against him in different ways.

Convinced the killer is one of his patients, no-one will listen to Joe and, as the body count increases, even those who know and love him start to regard him differently, particularly when Joe is caught in the biggest lie a married man can tell.

Not only do we meet Joe’s wife, Julieanne, and young, adorable daughter Charlie, this is also the book that introduces Vincent Ruiz – hardbitten detective who would be quite at home in a Raymond Chandler noir as he is between the pages of this book.

This is a real cat and mouse book – one where the roles sometimes change. While I can acknowledge the writing is superlative and the plotting excellent, I think it’s also testimony to Robotham (and possibly unfair of me) that the main reason I didn’t like the story as much is because, to me, Joe acted in a manner I considered out of character and which didn’t ring true. If I’d read the books in order, however, I presumably wouldn’t feel that way because I wouldn’t “know” Joe or be as invested in him as I’ve become. To me, this intelligent, deeply thinking man (always thinking, as Ruiz observes in a later book, which I’ve just finished and will shortly review as well), behaves in a way that jars – whether it’s how he responds to his diagnosis or the fact he continues to withhold information from the police, I’m not entirely sure. I found this enormously frustrating and even if I didn’t “know” Joe, I would have thought someone with his perceptive qualities and understanding of humans, should know not to keep the sort of information he does hidden as it will only cast more suspicion in him – which it does with devastating results.

Likewise, Ruiz is such an arse. Hostile from the outset, he really is incredibly unlovable and difficult to reconcile with the person he later becomes. I didn’t struggle with him as much as Joe, however, and enjoyed discovering the early stages of their relationship which, in many ways, functions as bromance – boy meets boy, boy hates boy, boy loves boy.

These are very picky complaints and, as I’ve noted, only arise because I read the books front to back (so to speak). Overall, it’s such a tremendous read and again, kept me awake far too late and is, I suspect (pun intentded) responsible for the shadows under my eyes.

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