Cut to the Bone by Alex Caan

About this book…

Ruby is a vlogger, a rising star of YouTube and a heroine to millions of teenage girls. And she’s missing. She’s an adult – nothing to worry about, surely? Until the video’s uploaded. Ruby, in the dirt and pleading for her life.

Who better to head up the investigation than the Met’s rising star, Detective Inspector Kate Riley? She’s leading a shiny new team, high-powered, mostly female and with the best resources money can buy. It’s time for them to prove what they can do. Alongside her, Detective Sergeant Zain Harris – poster boy for multiracial policing and the team’s newest member – has his own unique contribution to make. But can Kate wholly trust him and when he’s around, can she trust herself?

Ruby’s millions of fans are hysterical about what may have happened to her. The press is having a field day and as the investigation hurtles out of control in the glare of publicity, it becomes clear that the world of YouTube vloggers and social media is much, much darker than anyone could have imagined in their worst nightmares.

And the videos keep coming . . .

My review…

Not many books can keep me reading until the early hours of the morning but this debut novel grabbed me from page one and didn’t let me go! I don’t know what I expecting when I picked up this novel by Alex Caan (comparisons to The Fall brought it to my attention as well as being recommended for fans of Sarah Hilary) so I don’t know why I’m saying it wasn’t what I expected!! But it wasn’t and not in a bad way I hasten to add! It has a very current feel to it, mainly due to the plot that concerns “vlogging” but also because it brings a very fresh style to the writing and is written in short, sharp and snappy chapters. Sometimes it read like a YA book but again that is probably due to the plot content and so I would be very interested to see where this author goes next, especially if he continues with these characters in a series.

DCI Kate Riley has been put in charge of a new team reporting to the PCC in Westminster, Justin Hunt. Joining her team is DS Zain Harris and both are struggling with personal demons from their past. When Kate gets a phone call in the middle of night to say that Ruby Day, the rising star of YouTube vloggers, has gone missing, she understands straight away that this is no ordinary missing persons enquiry. There then follows a very twisty plot which I found absolutely fascinating! You can tell that the author has absolutely written about what he knows about with this plot involving modern technology and information systems (as a total technophobe and IT dinosaur I found it really interesting!) and it gave the plot a realistic buzz. I found that because of this, combined with the short chapters, I flew through this book. I was pretty surprised to see where it ended up as well, as there were a few twists I definitely hadn’t anticipated!

I liked Kate, although it took me a little time to warm to her, and this was probably due to her very mysterious backstory but once that became clearer I had a new found respect for her! And I’m sure there is plenty more to come there due to her past life in America! But I have to admit to having a bit of a thing about DS Zain Harris. I’d like to think its because I just want to mother him and take all of his worries away but after reading a rather unexpectedly spine tingling scene between him and Kate, I don’t think that’s the case! I do love an author who can create a character I want to meet in real life! Saying that, the whole book had a very visual feel to it, the small screen would love it!

I really enjoyed this and found it gripping from start to finish with realistic characters and plotting. There are a few books around at the moment with a strong female lead character who have a little twist to their life choices, but Alex Caan can hold his head up high here as this debut more than deserves a place on the shelves alongside them. So bring on the next book!

I received a copy of this book via netgalley in return for an unbiased review.

Cut to the Bone: Everyone’s watching. Nobody sees. is published in e-book on 14th July and can be purchased from Amazon UK here.