I loved this book and look forward to Doyle’s next case.

Oh, you want more information than that?

Ok. If you like police procedurals, you should definitely read this.

More information than that? Well, if you insist…

What’s it about?

When a woman’s broken body is found at the bottom of a cliff, it’s up to DCI Doyle, a new transfer to Lancashire from the London Met., to lead the team aiming to discover who threw her off it. The ex-boyfriend is an obvious suspect and there are other possibilities, too, but as the investigation progresses, Doyle realises that events in the past may be key to solving the murder in the present, and that this wasn’t the killer’s first body…

Can DCI Doyle uncover the culprit, manage his miserable new boss and make time to see his young son? Maybe, if he can avoid accidentally killing himself by attempting to scale mountains of moving boxes tucked away in storage – or by coming face to face with the killer…

What’s it like?

Enjoyable. Well paced and developed. Great characterisation. (I particularly liked Mr Grey, with his helpful CCTV and his clear sense of, um, priorities.)

I enjoyed the methodical police work as Doyle carefully ruled out certain suspects and began to explore the possibility of a serial killer, deploying his team according to their strengths. There are nice touches of humour and sufficient episodes from Doyle’s personal life to establish his background and some possible future storylines without it detracting from the main investigative storyline. There’s a prologue that effectively establishes the mindset of the perpetrator and an epilogue that nicely finalises the story.

‘Doyle wasn’t averse to going by the book, but sometimes he’d found it necessary to operate in the subtext between the lines.’

It’s quite a conventional storyline, but it makes for a highly effective police procedural, with just the right amount of detail about how various lines of enquiries are developing. I’ve no idea how accurate the depiction of running a Murder Investigation Team is, but it certainly sounded convincing, especially when a young officer reflects that:

‘The press frightened him more than any criminal he had come across. They could twist your words so tightly your career would snap.’

Final thoughts

This was an enjoyable read with little flashes of humour to lighten up the darkness of hunting for a serial murderer (although sensitive readers beware: a dog does come to harm) and I am looking forward to Spargo’s next book in this series.

‘Cut Short’,
BD Spargo,
2024, Howfen Press, paperback
Many thanks to the author, publisher and Rachel’s Random Resources for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and a spot on the blog tour.

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