THE FALLEN ANGEL by Andy Maslen

3.5* Good storyline, progress towards Carve-Up's comeuppance, hopefully, but...MAJOR SPOILER..........

....Andy Maslen copped out. All the Van/Marnie stuff, all the flirting between Kat and Jack was just a big fat nothing. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want either Kat or Van to cheat, but all the bigging up, all the innuendo, all the butterflies, and it was resolved with: THEIR MARRIAGE WAS FINE. MARNIE WAS JUST A HARMLESS, IF DETERMINED, FLIRT - LIKE JACK. SHE FOUND, WITH A SENSE OF RELIEF, THAT SHE DIDN’T EVEN THINK OF HIM THAT WAY NOW THAT HANNAH WANTED TO MAKE A PLAY FOR HIM. So yeah, twee and not-believable avoidance. And yet just pages before, there'd been mention of Van maybe not believing her protests about Jack. Hmm. Titillation for nothing. 

The Hannah character stole the show. There's already a massive spoiler in this review, so I won't add another, but she kicked arse. Her neurodivergence worked, and it was great to see Carve-Up humiliated. 

The Undertaker's interference in the case went nowhere, despite the half-decent red herring that it was. Will he get his comeuppance in the next book? And why, if he's so shit hot about rooting out corruption, is Carve-Up still there? The physical day-to-day evidence is so obvious, and then Kat goes and turns up some evidence it'll be hard for him to explain away... And Kat owes Frank a favour after this book. I'm interested to see how he calls it in. 

Will I read the next? Yes, because the books are good and Colin Morton deserves to not be the local big cheese, to be stripped of his local mafia-like status. Carve-Up's comeuppance will be the icing on the cake. The continuing arc needs to conclude in a big explosion. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer, for my reading pleasure.


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