
EXCERPT: All murder investigations were different and yet all of them began the same way, at least for me: standing in silence near a body, trying to catch the faintest echo of what had happened. Sometimes the air still vibrated with violence and high emotion, and sometimes the silence was empty. It was a habit I kept to myself, but one that reminded me of the fundamental truth: this was more than a job. Someone’s life had been ended too soon. Finding out who had done it, and why, was my duty.
ABOUT ‘THE CLOSE’: At first glance, Jellicoe Close seems to be a perfect suburban street – well-kept houses with pristine lawns, neighbours chatting over garden fences, children playing together.
But there are dark secrets behind the neat front doors, hidden dangers that include a ruthless criminal who will stop at nothing.
It’s up to DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent to uncover the truth. Posing as a couple, they move into the Close, blurring the lines between professional and personal as never before.
And while Maeve and Josh try to gather the evidence they need, they have no idea of the danger they face – because someone in Jellicoe Close has murder on their mind.
MY THOUGHTS: I am a late comer to Jane Casey’s Maeve Kerrigan series, and I have a lot of books to catch up on. If The Close is any indication of the quality of the series, I am in for a wonderful reading experience.
This is #10 in the series, but it reads easily as a stand-alone with only a few references to events in past books, and these are well explained.
I really enjoyed the characters in The Close. Maeve has suffered a recent traumatic event and, although she keeps telling everyone she is fine, she definitely isn’t operating with her normal flair and passion.
Josh Derwent, Maeve’s boss, good looking, confident almost to the point of arrogance, is concerned about her. To him, Maeve is only a shell of her former self. When an opportunity arises for Josh and Maeve to take on an undercover job posing as a dog-sitting couple in a human trafficking case, Josh pressures Maeve into taking it.
On the surface, Maeve and Josh don’t appear to get on, but underneath they have a deep respect for one another. But what is living in close quarters and posing as a newly loved-up couple going to do to that relationship?
There are some interesting characters resident in the Close. There is Gillian, an elderly woman with dementia, who is terrified of ‘the devil’. Is it just her dementia talking, or does someone pose a threat to her life? Ruth, a complainer, and her overly-friendly husband, Alan. Judy is the local do-gooder. She volunteers at charity shops, and takes in the homeless. If something is going on, Judy’s involved. There’s a neurotic housewife, and another undergoing IVF; a couple of sports-mad husbands, a single antique dealer, Gillian’s son and caregiver, and an assortment of children.
There’s a lot more going on in The Close than is at first apparent and, despite Maeve and Josh’s intention to not get involved in any crime other than the one they are investigating, fate and their natural instincts work against them.
The Close is a fast paced police procedural with an intriguing and complex plot, and interesting characters that I read in little more than 24 hours. Once I got into the last third, I simply couldn’t put The Close down. The further the story progressed, the tenser it got. I can’t wait for the next in this series.
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
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T: @JaneCaseyAuthor @HarperCollinsUK
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THE AUTHOR: Jane Casey, a former editor, is married to a criminal barrister who ensures her writing is realistic and as accurate as possible. Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK, Harper Fiction, via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Close by Jane Casey for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.