Jane Isaac

Inspector Will Jackman has a lot on is plate. His wife is still in a care facility with locked-in syndrome, he’s due to appear before the promotion board next week & his daughter is coming home from uni to visit….with “the boyfriend”. It’s really not a good time for a major case.

When he’s called to the scene of a burned out barn, it initially looks like a simple case of arson. But the body found inside is an added complication. Eventually he’s identified as Evan Baker, the show more farm’s caretaker.

A short distance away, Nancy Faraday comes to on the kitchen floor of the farm house. There’s blood on her face, glass on the floor & she can’t find her boyfriend Evan.

And they’re off. As Will & his team begin to dig, they find more questions than answers. The investigation stretches out in several directions & motives are thick on the ground. Mistaken identity, secret relationships & old crimes are just some of the threads they’ll have to follow before they find their killer.

In alternate chapters, we watch as Nancy comes to terms with her loss. She’s a fragile young woman whose crappy childhood left her searching for a proper home & family of her own. Her struggle to make sense of it all is stalled when she begins to receive threats from a mysterious man.

This is a quick, easy read that is in the style of a traditional british mystery. It’s a very “clean” story (no sex, swearing, etc.) that needs its own label……gentle thriller? gritty cozy? The characters are well defined & it clips along at a steady pace that shows all the scut work most cops have to endure to solve a case.

One thing that distracted from the story were frequent, long passages detailing Nancy’s childhood. Her mother is a recovering alcoholic & they have a tenuous relationship. This is established early on & peripheral to the main plot. Despite the book’s brevity, I thought these could have been cut in half & readers would still get it. Because of the style, the only real sense of urgency is reserved for the end & these long walks down memory lane just slowed the pace further without adding to what we already knew.

This is for fans of a thoughtful, less flashy police procedural. Ms. Isaac has a smooth style of writing that makes for effortless reading & excels at characterization. It’s the second in a series & fans of book #1 will not be disappointed. show less

This is the third in Jane Isaac’s series starring DI Will Jackman and she continues her well-developed writing style with yet another intriguing and cleverly written plot. You should be hooked from the beginning of the book as her character Jackman just keeps getting better the more she writes.

Her series is only getting better with each book as evidence by the storyline in this one which was starting to feel a bit predictable but…One of the things I liked about this novel is that even show more when it started to feel a bit like you were going to figure things out Isaac managed to hold the frustration at bay by throwing in a shocker when the reveal time came so you still got to enjoy the element of surprise.

One of the more interesting things Isaac did with this which is what I believe enhances this particular book over the others is the way she beefed up the character of Grace Daniels so you get a wider viewpoint on what’s happening from a very different personality than Jackman. Her writing of Grace really pulls at the heartstrings and she is so clear about the anguish this woman is going through you feel a very real struggle of wanting to believe her but at the same time can you really believe that she isn’t the murderer she’s being accused of being? Isaac did a great job writing this so it feels like more than one voice is guiding the reader. I liked how she started with the prologue so you have a sense of where this story will take you and it’s actually interesting.

I would recommend starting this when you have a good block of time to devote because it’s not one where you can read a few pages/chapters, go about your life then come back, read some more, put it down again, etc. You’ll really want to dig in and devote your attention because once it gets going you’re not going to want to put it down and I think you’ll enjoy the story more overall with few interruptions. The pace is fairly quick with a great level of suspense so it shouldn’t feel like a chore devoting your time to another chapter of Jackman’s life. show less

Can you imagine coming home from work to find a dead body in your living room and blood all over the place. Well I can't but Anna Cottrell sure found out. As time goes on things just get worse and worse. An Unfamiliar Murder starts off and doesn't let you go until the end. Anna has some family secrets that even she didn't know about and she finds that her parents have been keeping secret from her that will change her life in ways that she could never imagine. This is a wonderful thriller show more that I read in one sitting, which surprised even me. Characters that you can cheer for and bad guys that you can hate. This book will keep you on your toes to the very end, I can almost see a sequel in the works. A great debut novel. show less

This is the fourth in the DCI Helen Lavery series; it is the second I have read and enjoyed. Although part of a series, I think Evil Intent would be fine as a standalone.

In this case, a series of dead bodies of young women with a pentagram carved into their chests is investigated by Helen’s team. In addition, the half brother of a notorious criminal who was the nemesis of both Helen and, before that, her father, has turned up in town and his son has become a close friend of her son’s. show more

This is not only a solid police procedural, but it also focuses on the affects of violence on victim’s families, as well as the impact of policing on an officer’s family. It moves along at a good pace and I did not want to put it down!

Helen is a strong, confident female character. I’ve read too many authors with female leads who have flaws in the their personality make up. Helen is an emotionally mature individual and I look forward to reading the next in this series. Are changes coming? As the story ends, Helen, who is Acting Detective Superintendent is about to say goodbye to her Assistant Chief Constable who has taken a job with another department. show less