| Publisher | Hemlock Press |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 14 March 2024 |
| ISBN-10 | 0008405026 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0008405021 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 384 |
| Price | £ 16.99 |
A Stranger in the Family
by
A nine-year-old girl vanished from home 16 years ago. Now her adoptive parents have been found dead in what looks like a murder-suicide. But DS Maeve Kerrigan isn’t convinced the case is as straightforward as it seems.
Review
When 62-year-old Helena Marshall and her husband Bruce are found dead, it at first appears that this is a straightforward case of murder-suicide. Bruce Marshall apparently shot himself after smothering his wife, who had suffered from severe depression for years.
The case falls to DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent, neither of whom are convinced that the scene is as simple as it first appears. From examining the position of the bodies, it appears that Bruce died first, and – if true – he could not then have smothered Helena. So instead of a murder-suicide, they are now investigating a double murder.
A possible motive might lie 16 years in the past, with the disappearance of the Marshalls’ nine-year-old adopted daughter, Rosalie, who disappeared without trace one night from their home and was never found. One theory at the time was that she had fallen in the river at the end of the garden, but clearly Bruce Marshall never stopped looking for the little girl as the spare room at the house where he died is full of archive boxes of information relating to the investigation and the extensive press coverage at the time.
Josh Derwent doesn’t like coincidences, and nor does Maeve, so the pair are determined to keep digging until they uncover the truth behind both the murders and Rosalie’s disappearance. The more Maeve uncovers, the more she becomes certain that the past is indeed casting a long shadow and that when she finds out the truth of what happened on that long-ago summer night, then she will have also found the murderer.
As ever with a Jane Casey mystery, there are layers within layers, but A Stranger in the Family felt positively labyrinthine in its complexity, and just when I thought I’d succeeded in fitting the pieces together, the story veered off in a wholly unexpected direction, leaving me struggling to catch up.
I’ve followed this series from the start and can honestly say that it has gone from strength to strength, with each investigation carried out against the complex backdrop of the relationship between Maeve and Josh.
Maeve has always suffered from a lack of self-confidence, exacerbated by an abusive relationship that led to severe self-esteem issues. Josh has all the confidence she lacks and this, coupled with an abrasive and at times overbearing manner, has never made theirs an easy partnership. Josh is also deeply protective and it’s been clear for a while that the pair have more than professional feelings for each other, but as Josh is with another woman and very much loves her young son, he has no intention of taking things any further with Maeve.
Casey has set a very high bar with her combination of police procedural and personal drama. There is nothing predictable about her writing. The plots are meticulous, the characters are excellently drawn and wholly consistent. I care about them. I want to know what happens next in both their professional and personal lives. And I want to know what’s behind the cliffhanger that came out of nowhere in the final two words of the book! It may be a reviewer’s cliché, but for me, the next book definitely can’t come soon enough.
The case falls to DS Maeve Kerrigan and her boss DI Josh Derwent, neither of whom are convinced that the scene is as simple as it first appears. From examining the position of the bodies, it appears that Bruce died first, and – if true – he could not then have smothered Helena. So instead of a murder-suicide, they are now investigating a double murder.
A possible motive might lie 16 years in the past, with the disappearance of the Marshalls’ nine-year-old adopted daughter, Rosalie, who disappeared without trace one night from their home and was never found. One theory at the time was that she had fallen in the river at the end of the garden, but clearly Bruce Marshall never stopped looking for the little girl as the spare room at the house where he died is full of archive boxes of information relating to the investigation and the extensive press coverage at the time.
Josh Derwent doesn’t like coincidences, and nor does Maeve, so the pair are determined to keep digging until they uncover the truth behind both the murders and Rosalie’s disappearance. The more Maeve uncovers, the more she becomes certain that the past is indeed casting a long shadow and that when she finds out the truth of what happened on that long-ago summer night, then she will have also found the murderer.
As ever with a Jane Casey mystery, there are layers within layers, but A Stranger in the Family felt positively labyrinthine in its complexity, and just when I thought I’d succeeded in fitting the pieces together, the story veered off in a wholly unexpected direction, leaving me struggling to catch up.
I’ve followed this series from the start and can honestly say that it has gone from strength to strength, with each investigation carried out against the complex backdrop of the relationship between Maeve and Josh.
Maeve has always suffered from a lack of self-confidence, exacerbated by an abusive relationship that led to severe self-esteem issues. Josh has all the confidence she lacks and this, coupled with an abrasive and at times overbearing manner, has never made theirs an easy partnership. Josh is also deeply protective and it’s been clear for a while that the pair have more than professional feelings for each other, but as Josh is with another woman and very much loves her young son, he has no intention of taking things any further with Maeve.
Casey has set a very high bar with her combination of police procedural and personal drama. There is nothing predictable about her writing. The plots are meticulous, the characters are excellently drawn and wholly consistent. I care about them. I want to know what happens next in both their professional and personal lives. And I want to know what’s behind the cliffhanger that came out of nowhere in the final two words of the book! It may be a reviewer’s cliché, but for me, the next book definitely can’t come soon enough.
Reviewed 25 March 2024 by Linda Wilson
