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A review by paulabrandon
The Reckoning by Jane Casey
1.0
I read the first book in this series, The Burning, some eight years ago! I don't really remember much about it, other than it was well-written, and an otherwise decent combination of police procedural and psychological thriller. However, The Reckoning is out-and-out police procedural, which is really not my favourite subgenre. It is well-written, but that's about the only nice thing I can say about this bloated, boring effort.
The story starts off with Maeve Kerrigan being assigned the case of the gruesome murders of convicted paedophiles, along with Josh Derwent, new to her force, and a real chauvinist. However, halfway through, the story completely changes course. It felt almost like two different books. This switch also introduced the British gangster underbelly element, WHICH I HATE. I have no interest in this. None. NONE. It thankfully isn't too prevalent, but nonetheless indicative of just how bog-standard and dripping in British police procedure cliches this effort really is.
And even with the two distinct plots, the real focus seems to be Maeve's relationship with colleague Rob Langton. At points, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were reading a romance novel.
Nothing really worked for me. The two plots (vigilante murders, a missing girl) were completely by the numbers and relied heavily on coincidence and contrivance. It hardly feels like the police actually solved anything! The gangster underbelly character was taking care of everything! Whenever Maeve visits a crime scene or somebody's house to question them, she seems far more interested in their wallpaper patterns and other descriptive elements than anything else! At 483 pages, this really could have done with a bit of editing. For crying out loud, I don't need to know what a minor character's wallpaper looks like!
Late in the story, the point of view abruptly shifts to that of Maeve's on-off love interest Rob Langton seemingly for no other reason that Maeve can't be there when certain things are going down. And even then things are happening because someone outside of Maeve and the police force are putting them into action. I just had no investment in anything. Things just seemed to happen, and Maeve and her colleagues were always just playing catch-up. Probably because they were too busy taking note of what everybody's wallpaper looked like.
I've got another book in this series stacked away in one of my many bookshelves (the curse of cheap op-shop finds). Hopefully, in the eight years it takes me to read it, I won't forget how, well, forgetful this one was and erroneously cheaply pick up any more.
The story starts off with Maeve Kerrigan being assigned the case of the gruesome murders of convicted paedophiles, along with Josh Derwent, new to her force, and a real chauvinist. However, halfway through, the story completely changes course. It felt almost like two different books. This switch also introduced the British gangster underbelly element, WHICH I HATE. I have no interest in this. None. NONE. It thankfully isn't too prevalent, but nonetheless indicative of just how bog-standard and dripping in British police procedure cliches this effort really is.
And even with the two distinct plots, the real focus seems to be Maeve's relationship with colleague Rob Langton. At points, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were reading a romance novel.
Nothing really worked for me. The two plots (vigilante murders, a missing girl) were completely by the numbers and relied heavily on coincidence and contrivance. It hardly feels like the police actually solved anything! The gangster underbelly character was taking care of everything! Whenever Maeve visits a crime scene or somebody's house to question them, she seems far more interested in their wallpaper patterns and other descriptive elements than anything else! At 483 pages, this really could have done with a bit of editing. For crying out loud, I don't need to know what a minor character's wallpaper looks like!
Late in the story, the point of view abruptly shifts to that of Maeve's on-off love interest Rob Langton seemingly for no other reason that Maeve can't be there when certain things are going down. And even then things are happening because someone outside of Maeve and the police force are putting them into action. I just had no investment in anything. Things just seemed to happen, and Maeve and her colleagues were always just playing catch-up. Probably because they were too busy taking note of what everybody's wallpaper looked like.
I've got another book in this series stacked away in one of my many bookshelves (the curse of cheap op-shop finds). Hopefully, in the eight years it takes me to read it, I won't forget how, well, forgetful this one was and erroneously cheaply pick up any more.