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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Killing the Shadows review



I have to be honest and say I tend to be a bit wary of modern British crime-writers. I love a good mystery, but for some reason I have the impression that there’s a lot of … what I call “Oi, Guv,” in my head in them.

You know – rebelling Against the System and Working too Hard and Having Troubles at Home because of it, and so, usually, I  don’t read them, because I’m not a big fan of personal lives in crime stories. (I’m aware of how that sounds. Hush.)

However, I picked up Killing the Shadows at the library and decided to give it a shot last weekend, and I was pleased I did. I got an intelligent thriller with a solid plotline and characters that I could invest in on a personal and professional level because they had their shit together.

Which just shows, for me, that  you don’t have to produce 500 pages of miseryguts lit to make a decent thriller.

Anyway, that’s enough of that mini-rant. On to the book itself.

Psychologist Fiona Cameron is just coming off the back of working a case with the Met, that ended up going badly and led to Fiona severing her relationship with the System.

However, she gets drawn back in when a killer begins targeting mystery writers, and her partner happens to be bestselling crime writer Kit Martin …

I’m not big on feelings in crime stories, like I say, but I liked Kit and Fiona – they’re a happy, successful couple and goshdarn, I like that.

Killing the Shadows taps along at a pretty good pace, with plenty of gruesomeness – actually, a bit more gruesomeness than I’m comfortable with, and it doesn’t normally doesn’t make me squeamish.

But it’s a good thriller with well-rounded characters and a who-dun-it that really does keep you guessing. 

3 comments:

Chinoiseries said...

But, but... feelings and personal issues are usually part of crime novels? Is my experience, anyway. Too much of it is annoying and distracting though. Glad to see that Killing the Shadows didn't fall into that trap :) Heh, because they had their shit together ;)

Maree said...

True! And I'm good with feelings related to the crime itself, but the ... extras? I don't have time for - lol :-)

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