THE TWELFTH FLOOR by Michelle Kidd

4* Not necessary to have read the previous books in this series to enjoy this one.

There's enough told/hinted at at the right spots in this tale so that a brand new reader, like myself, won't be lost getting to grips with Jack's world. Although, saying that, I will be picking up the rest, as it's intriguing to know more about his brother Mac and what happened to him and his wife, and also, I think Jack and Mac's childhood habe affected them to the point of influencing Jack's career and somewhat suspect decisions. As a cop, he's been both shortsighted and openhearted, and sadly, a bit blind and in need of some therapy. I don't know if he was mandated therapy in previous tales, but a cop of his level, dealing with the public and press conferences cannot act like he does and still be in the role. That's part of the tale that lost 1* for me. It's just not believable that in 2024 PC UK, he'd get away with what he's done more than once - the second incident being after a severe warning - and not be hauled over the coals, threatened with demotion or mandated to have some kind of training and/or therapy. That small part of the tale didn't work, but goodness, so did the rest!

The storyline made me think there were 2 killers - no spoilers here - so I was thrown by the reveals. Both guys were shady; one had been caught on camera in the middle of something very suspect; and both did a flit. So when the reveal came, it was both very sadly plausible and wtf??? for me. I think it was also an eye opener for Jack, and sadly I also think it showed that his detection skills weren't as hot as they perhaps could've been. So, maybe in the next book, which I'd absolutely read, he's hopefully going/gone through some kind of debrief, some retraining, some therapy, to enable him to be an even better cop. 

A tiny criticism is that due to the detail and content, at times the book felt overloaded with TMI in spots, and it dragged a bit. But, the tale was good and it was worth a read.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Joffe Books for my reading pleasure. 

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