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CUT SHORT is a first novel – and it reads like it. In fact, at times, it feels more like a first draft. DI Geraldine Steel has a new job and a lot to prove. And she's faced with a tough case, as a serial killer is targeting women in a park. There's a double dose of danger when a witness comes forward and also finds themselves under threat. Leigh Russell has some intriguing ideas, but everything seems rushed and superficial. And she falls into the first-time novelist's trap of taking genre codes but not leaving her own stamp on them. The difficult female DCI has possibilities, but never rises above cliché. The same can be said for most of Geraldine's colleagues, the feminist demonstrators and the rebellious daughter of a big name star. The book is over-long and slow. And, most problematically, it lacks plausibility. We're told Geraldine's a good cop, but there's no evidence of it in the book – she goes off at tangents and behaves implausibly when her private life is threatened. If anything, the grumpy DCI goes easy on her … The book blurb suggests that Geraldine's past and future are about to collide. Well, unless I missed something, it doesn't. In fact, a number of promising angles get mentioned and then dumped. Leigh Russell is apparently working on follow-ups, so maybe they'll be revisited in these. Seemingly random and unrelated statements and deductions don't help the book's flow. Considering the status of the killer, a number of his actions make absolutely no sense at all. And he's in no way strong or compelling enough to carry the novel. CUT SHORT has some potential, but sadly never delivers. What it boils down to is a load of charmless characters, cliched dialogue – declaimed unconvincingly – and an over-reliance on genre techniques. Russell has a lot of work to do if she's ever to approach the achievements of Ruth Rendell, to whom her publishers are comparing her.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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