#BookReview-@ThePigeonholeHQ -‘Cruel Acts’ by @JaneCaseyAuthor

For anyone who hasn’t used The Pigeonhole before, it’s a serialised, online bookclub unlike any other!

A limited number of positions are available to join a number of read alongs, one stave is released each day and there is a 2 month window for reading the entire book.

Commenting as you read along and engaging with other readers is just part of the fun, as sometimes the authors join in  and also add Pigeonhole exclusive details to boot!
‘Cruel Acts’ by Jane Casey is one of their latest serials and as a HUGE fan of Maeve Kerrigan, I was super thrilled to be on board. I pre-ordered the book but am a very impatient bookish hobbit!

About the book…

HUZZAH! The tremendulant (copyright @BookishChat) Maeve Kerrigan returns in this, her 8th outing as if she has never been away!

She and Derwent are bickering like an old married couple as they try to determine Leo’s innocence or guilt in the cases of 3 murders-2 bodies found and the last tied to Leo with evidence which at best is cicrumstantial. Is Leo guilty of these crimes? Was he working with someone else or is he guilty of entirely different crimes?

This book twists and turns as it plays with your perceptions of right and wrong, the concept of trial by media and what an authetnically ‘bad guy’ looks like.Leo Stone is an odious criminal prescence who you want to bat away from Maeve and yell ‘Leave her alone’ as he sets his sights on getting to know her better after his release from prison.

Due to a ‘tell all’ juror writing a memoir of the case, all evidence was considered and a retrail with a new trial granted. The families of the 2 women who were found have little faith that the police did a good job first time around and Jane Casey does a fantastic job putting you in the room with the victims of the crime. Her light touch and small nuances really bring home the human elements behind the public story-the beautiful victims, the hunt for them, the nasty killer with criminal written through him like a stick of rock.

Or is he?

Are we too quick to condemn a person due to their class, their background and past behaviour?

When Leo is finally out, and another woman goes missing, is it to throw the police off the scent and away from him? Is it an accomplice or a copycat? Is Leo guilty of anything more than being a reprehensible dickhead or is he capable of more?

The examination of the justice system is seen from so many sides that the reader has a fully rounded idea of the practicalities of a murder investigation and reopening of case files. You see it from, the detecting side, the public side, the forensics aspect and the legal one too.

As a police procedural, it is intensely gripping. The sheer talent that Jane has to keep these characters moving and developing after 8 books and short stories whilst juggling plotlines as gripping and relevant as this is a mark of sheer talent.

The prospect and application of justice is a concept we all juggle with as pedestrians so how must it feel for those behind the wheek, the ones who do not pass go and drive their passengers straight to jail?

It’s no surprise to say I was gripped to the very last word after which I am going to re-read the whole series (again). It’s a book to lose yourself in, a great and recommended read.

About 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.

Links-https://thepigeonhole.com/

Twitter @JaneCaseyAuthor

@ThePigeonholeHQ