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THE STRANGER YOU KNOW
by Jane Casey
Ebury, July 2013
448 pages
12.99 GBP
ISBN: 0091948339


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

DC Maeve Kerrigan works in the murder squad of the Metropolitan Police. As one of the youngest members of the squad, she is excited to be asked to join a small team investigating a series of murders and mutilations of young women. Her misogynistic boss, DI Josh Derwent, is excluded from the investigation and it soon becomes clear that this is because he is the prime suspect. The murders are uncannily similar to that of Derwent's girlfriend Angela, killed and mutilated outside her parents' house twenty years ago when she was fifteen and he was seventeen. Derwent was the chief suspect then, although he had an alibi and was never charged, and the murder remains unsolved. But why would the murders suddenly start again twenty years later?

At first, all the evidence seems to point to Derwent, and certain team members are determined to prove his guilt. Kerrigan, however, is convinced that the solution to the puzzle lies in the cold case and takes it upon herself to re-investigate. She uncovers a story where almost all the witnesses lied, each for their own reasons, and no-one thought to mention the one vital piece of information that would identify the killer.

A real page-turner, this book was very difficult to put down. The twists and turns of the plot keep the reader guessing almost to the last page and there are enough sub-plots to give the characters three-dimensional lives. There is the developing working and personal relationship between Maeve and Derwent; her relationship with her gorgeous boyfriend Rob; and the presence in the background of the shadowy Chris Swain, the stalker who attacked her in a previous story.

Maeve finds office relationships difficult. She struggles with being a workaholic female detective in a man's world and she is full of self-doubt. Her loyalties are divided between Derwent and Chief Superintendent Godley, head of the murder squad, but to solve the case she has to make a choice between obeying her boss and helping her friend, risking her career in the process.

Definitely worth a read. I will be looking out for the next in this series.

§ Sylvia Wilson is a professional veterinary surgeon and amateur singer and actor who lives in Gloucestershire, England with her husband, dog, and horses.

Reviewed by Sylvia Wilson, June 2013

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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