Book review: Critical Incidents

I discovered UK author Lucie Whitehouse with her first novel, and have since read all the novels she’s published.

I always enjoy her writing, although the qualty of the novels has varied, and at times I’ve felt it diffcult to really get into the mindset of her protagonists or to fully suspend disbelief for some of the plot set-ups.

Critical Incidents is definitely the best of her work, and the voice grabs you from Chapter 1. This novel is very different from Whitehouse’s earlier novels, and it’s a compelling read with interesting characters, a real sense of place and a page-turning detective investigation that drives the action.

Equal parts detective story and journey of self discovery, Critical Incidents is a well-written and addictive page-turner.

 

Placed on administrative leave from her high adrenaline job as a homocide detective with London’s meropolitan police, Robin Lyons returns, with her teen daughter Lennie in tow, to the place she’d escaped from years earlier: her hometown of Birmingham.

Jobless, humiliated and broke, Robin returns to her family home, where she and Lennie live in her old childhood room. Through a family friend, a private investigator, Robin puts her highly developed sleuthing skills to work on an easy task – staking out welfare cheats.

But soon Robin is confronted both by the suspicious death of a childhood friend and involvement in the case of a missing local girl. Not only do the investigations return her to rhythms she established as a homocide detective, but they cause her to revisit choices made long ago and to reexamine past convictions. A fast moving, enjoyable read.

2 Comments

  1. BonnieReadsAndWrites on December 27, 2020 at 12:39 am

    Sounds great. I’m putting it on my TBR for 2021.

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