Let The Dead Speak by Jane Casey #BookReview

About this book…

In the chilling new crime novel from award-winning author Jane Casey, Detective Maeve Kerrigan and the murder squad must navigate a web of lies to discover the truth…

A murder without a body
Eighteen-year-old Chloe Emery returns to her West London home one day to find the house covered in blood and Kate, her mother, gone. There may not be a body, but everything else points to murder.

A girl too scared to talk
Maeve Kerrigan is young, ambitious and determined to prove she’s up to her new role as detective sergeant. She suspects Chloe is holding something back, but best friend Bethany Norris won’t let Maeve get close. What exactly is Bethany protecting Chloe from?

A detective with everything to prove
As the team dig deeper into the residents of Valerian Road, no one is above suspicion. All Maeve needs is one person to talk, but that’s not going to happen. Because even in a case of murder, some secrets are too terrible to share…

My review…

I feel like I have been waiting forever for the new Maeve Kerrigan book by Jane Casey but this series is one I will happily wait for if the plots are as good as this one! Seven books into this series and it’s just getting better and better! In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the best so far.

The plot here is a well thought out and meticulously planned police procedural that will work for you even if you have never read any of the previous books in the series. The personal threads are kept to a minimum this time but I always recommend going back to the start of a series as you will get so much more out of the characters when you understand their backstories and have watched how their relationships develop.

Whilst the investigation here is carried out by the newly promoted DS Maeve Kerrigan alongside DI Josh Derwent, I liked the addition of some new blood to their team with the latest recruit DC Georgia Shaw. This girl has a lot to learn, however I was quite proud of Maeve and how she interacted with her and enjoyed watching their scenes together. Josh was his usual politically incorrect self but there was a new depth to him as we discover that a new relationship with his girlfriends son has had an unexpected effect on him. But don’t worry, his charisma and bad boy persona aren’t far away! And I just love him exactly the way he is!

But the main focus here was on the case of a missing mother, presumed murdered due to the slaughterhouse scene found at her home by her teenage daughter, Chloe. The daughter, a beautiful 18 year old, discovers the crime scene but she has some learning difficulties so Maeve struggles to get information from her about her mother’s habits or any enemies she may have. In fact the whole neighbourhood seemed to have something to hide-it was like trying to get blood from a stone for Maeve and the poor investigation team.

Once you pick up one of Jane Casey’s books you will find it difficult to put down, she has an enviable way of grabbing your attention right from the off. This enthralling crime drama will keep you in suspense with some twisty plot details and creepy suspects right up until the satisfying finale. I always recommend this series whenever I can and I can’t believe some people still haven’t had the pleasure of discovering it. I’m rather envious that they are able to start at book one and have the whole Maeve Kerrigan experience ahead of them. Highly recommended by me!

I received a copy of Let the Dead Speak from the publisher via netgalley.

Let the Dead Speak is published by Harper Collins on 9th March 2017 and you can Click Let the Dead Speak: A Maeve Kerrigan crime thriller (Maeve Kerrigan, Book 7) to purchase from Amazon UK.

Meet the author…

“All my criminal elements have some basis in reality, no matter how awful they may be. Nothing is completely farfetched.” Jane Casey

Crime is a family affair for Jane Casey. Married to a criminal barrister, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life, from the smell of a police cell to the darkest motives of a serial killer.

This gritty realism has made her books international bestsellers and critical successes; while Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan has quickly become one of the most popular characters in crime fiction.

Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know, Jane has been shortlisted four times for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award and longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award.

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