4* What a read. Started off with something mundane, turned into something totally shocking. I wasn't sure I'd like this tale of a former roomie/bestie going to interview a trad wife, some 10/11 years after their lives diverged, following a fallout, for a celebrity piece. I was a bit surprised at the lack of awkwardness and tension between the former friends, and didn't expect the tension from the actual eventual source. I absolutely didn't expect the plot, which was really, really well done, if you can cope with the plotting, the (occasionally) flawed rationale, the not-really-likable journalist/writer, Holland, and the iceberg-type trad wife, Cat/Catriona. Add in various very, very good red herrings (staff, scared kids, a creepy teen, a domineering husband, a mysterious death - still not clarified at the end, cops that don't have big-city cop instincts or mistrust, mental health, a possible psychopath), and you have a very, very well-done, well- dovetailed tale tha...
3.5* It plods, but it's detailed and the lead guy, Stil, has a cop's instinctive intuition. But, the ending is REALLY annoying. There's nothing too overt about this tale, although if I mentioned a single noun, I'd be giving the whole thing away. But it's a good police procedural if only for Stil, exiled to a backwater that cops go to if they've been deemed to have messed up. I don't recall his back-story, but there's back-story to the guy who gets...'killed' at the start, leading to a cold-case team and the FBI getting involved. There's posturing and veiled threats from higher-ups, but Stil is pretty adept at climbing out of windows, literally, to get out and do what needs to be done to get the bad guys. Ish. The 'ish' is where the book loses 1.5* for me, because all that footwork, all that putting himself in danger, all that following the trail of breadcrumbs and finding the bakery, and the book ends as it does?? Unsatisfying. Not un...
4* Is the end of the series as we know it? Seems likely but there's plenty left for a spin-off series. Well, things get put to bed in this book. The guy I've hated (forgotten his name) since finding out what he'd been doing to, and was continuing to try and do, to Anna, gets a very deserved comeuppance here. A very satisfying one. I loved the collusion between Sheridan, her boss and a scally seemingly with his heart, and some morals at least, in the right place. Only in Scouseland. There's a lot of death in this book. There's revenge I could get behind. There's playing the long game, excellent plotting, and I felt for the bereaved. Double bereaved. There's a Jackie Collins type of epilogue, the kind where you find out what happens to each character. It's satisfying. It's closure, hence my thinking it's the end of the series. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer, for my reading pleasure.
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