Cruel Acts by Jane Casey

Somehow, and I am not sure how, Jane Casey is a completely new author to me.  This strikes me as particularly odd as this is a genre that I have read extensively in and she is hardly a new author.  I might be late to the delights of Kerrigan novels (this is the eighth after all) but this is definitely a case of better late than never.  Despite having no knowledge of the characters it is easy to slot in to their world and I never felt like I was missing out on anything except some personal history between her and Derwent.  It also appeared that there was little regurgitation of previous storylines so this worked as a more or less stand alone story.

The thing that really stood out for me was the relationship between Derwent and Kerrigan.  The banter between them and the way they could completely frustrate each other was wonderfully detailed on the page, the dialogue in particular was crisp, sharp and wholly believable.  In all honesty the relationships between everyone we meet on the MIT are very realistic and with only a few short sentences a rich world is revealed to the reader, more importantly (and impressively) a wholly believable one.

I am not going to talk much about the plot here.  The blurb tells you more or less what to expect from the criminal investigation side of things and I fear that even mentioning some of the characters will lead me down the path of revealing far more than I should.  Suffice to say it is cleverly crafted with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep you scratching your head and mentally crossing out your theories as time goes on.  Despite the grim horror of the crimes nothing is sensationalised and there are no flashbacks to the crimes here beyond witness statements, so no real blood, guts and gore which does make a refreshing change for the genre.

This is an accomplished book with strong characters, a free flowing and elegant plot and some genuine laugh out loud moments.

THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.