Lee Allen's Blog - Posts Tagged "cold-case"

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Strike and Robin take on an investigation into a cold case – the 1974 disappearance of a doctor, believed to be the victim of a serial killer.

While visiting his dying aunt in Cornwall, Strike is approached by Anna, who asks him to consider investigating the disappearance of her mother, Margot Bamborough, four decades before. Strike knows the possibility of success is unlikely to impossible after such a length of time and without the resources available to the police, who were themselves unable to solve the crime. Nevertheless, his interest is piqued. Robin, now Strike’s partner in the detective agency and currently navigating her divorce, travels to Falmouth to meet with Anna and her wife, Kim, alongside Strike. They agree to work on the case for twelve months.

There were several lines of inquiry followed by police during their investigation into Margot’s disappearance, chief among them and the widely regarded opinion that she fell victim to serial killer the Essex Butcher – but there was not sufficient evidence to charge Dennis Creed, now incarcerated in Broadmoor, with Margot’s murder. Already juggling multiple cases, the agency begins its own investigation, reviewing the shaky police investigation, which had been led by two detectives before it went cold. The first detective, Talbot, had been suffering a breakdown, becoming ever more obsessed with tracking down the Essex Butcher and believing he could solve Margot’s disappearance by occult means.

Across the next year, Strike and Robin track down the original witnesses, chase down old leads and uncover new revelations, whilst juggling the agency’s caseload and their personal challenges, not least of all the complications of their own relationship. The spectre of the Occult is never far behind them in this labyrinthine mystery of long shadows, buried lies and twisted secrets.

‘Troubled Blood’, the fifth novel in the series, is instantly engrossing, the narrative propelled by the entwining plots and sub-plots. Keeping a story so tautly plotted throughout over nine-hundred pages is a feat in itself, each scene and character described in exquisite detail, the images and the emotions expertly conjured. Galbraith’s ‘Strike’ series is pitched perfectly between classic and modern, of such high quality that the result reads like a cocktail of the masters of the genre – a blend of Agatha Christie and Lynda La Plante, with a dash of Stephen King, while the voice of the storyteller is always, unmistakably, J.K. Rowling.

I loved the previous four books in the series and this is my favourite so far. Strike and Robin are such endearing characters – both full of compassion and moral integrity, striving to uncover the truth through skilled investigation and enquiring intellect – in some ways so similar and in others vastly different. These two characters and their relationship are the driving force behind the series as much as the individual investigations within each novel. We may have all experienced a relationship like theirs at some point in our lives; so enriching, yet so complicated.

The solution to the mystery is sublime, the twist hidden in plain sight and so brilliantly orchestrated; a deeply satisfying conclusion to an epic novel packed with suspense, investigative research, multiple cases, emotion and heartbreak, laughter, and the lingering shadows of evil.

‘Troubled Blood’ is a thrilling and absorbing mystery from the pen of a master storyteller. I very much hope we get to see this one adapted for TV like the previous four, and cannot wait to devour book six – this is crime fiction at its absolute finest.



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Still Life by Val McDermid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A thrilling police procedural featuring two investigations for Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit.

Fishermen pull a man’s body from the Firth of Forth estuary, launching an investigation by Fife’s local CID. DS Daisy Mortimer, recently transferred to the team, is both nervous and excited to be involved in her first murder inquiry. The victim is soon identified as a French citizen, but enquiries with the French police identify that he previously absconded to France to join the French Foreign Legion – prior to this he was a UK citizen and chief suspect in the inquiry into the disappearance of his brother, a civil servant, a case which quickly ran cold.

Meanwhile, DCI Karen Pirie is investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in the back of a camper van in the garage of a recently deceased RTA victim. It appears likely that this may be linked to the deceased's ex-partner. Karen and DC Jason Murray delve into both women’s backgrounds, while Karen finds herself distracted by an offender’s imminent release from prison.

With the live inquiry linked to the cold case of the civil servant’s disappearance, Karen is tasked with taking the lead on the investigation, one with lines of enquiry which sprawl through England, France and finally to Ireland. Juggling both inquiries, Karen and the team find themselves hunting two dangerous murderers whose unearthed crimes threaten to continue bleeding into the present.

I first encountered Karen Pirie back when ‘The Distant Echo’ was still a standalone thriller – I still recall its chilling imagery to this day. When I later picked up ‘A Darker Domain’, believing it to be another standalone, I was pleasantly surprised to recognise the lead characters. Since then I have eagerly followed Karen’s cases. This, the sixth in the series, is once again another high quality thriller from Val McDermid; packed with forensic and procedural detail, cross-jurisdictional sparring and cooperation, and the blurring of both historic and current cases – resulting in an intriguing, authentic police thriller, that builds to a suspenseful and satisfying climax.

Karen continues to be an endearing character, her own personal life intertwined throughout (while the novel can be read as a standalone, I would recommend reading the novels in order to avoid spoilers and best experience the ongoing character development across the series), her no-nonsense approach and desire for justice never wavering. An appearance by anthropologist Dr River Wilde is always welcome, while I very much like new recruit Daisy and hope she continues to feature in the series in the future. The Pirie novels, in particular amongst McDermid’s work, demonstrate a keen political and social awareness, current events bubbling in the background. With the novel concluding in March 2020, I’m very excited to see what may come next for Karen and her team.

Fast-paced, with a social and moral conscience, and gripping from beginning to end, ‘Still Life’ is another fantastic novel from the Queen of Scottish Crime, and, as ever, I shall be eagerly picking up the next McDermid thriller as soon as it arrives.



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Whole Life Sentence by Lynda La Plante

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An engrossing final chapter in the ‘Prime Suspect’ prequel series.

Jane Tennison has achieved her goal of promotion to DCI and transfer to an elite new major investigations team.

But from her first day, her colleagues are intent on making her work and life difficult. Assigned a cold case her superior believes is a dead end, Jane is determined to prove everyone wrong.

But as her hard work continues to be undermined and credit taken away from her, Jane begins to question if her ambition and dedication has been worth it, or if she is simply fighting battles she cannot win.

‘Whole Life Sentence’ is the tenth and final novel in the Jane Tennison series by Lynda La Plante, and the direct prequel to ‘Prime Suspect’, following the previous nine novels exploring Jane’s life and career since joining the police in 1973 and her climb from naive WPC to a skilled and experienced detective and AMIT's first female DCI. We pick up Jane’s story following the events of 'Taste of Blood', with the murder trial finally reaching its conclusion and Jane preparing to face the promotion board. Having been filling the role of Acting DCI at her previous station, Jane secures her promotion and requests her transfer be to AMIT – newly set up for investigation of major and serious crime.

It is now 1991, only months before we originally met Jane in ‘Prime Suspect’, when she finally has the opportunity to lead her first major murder inquiry. The novel focuses on two cases that Jane finds herself investigating – a heartbreaking cold case concerning the disappearance of a teenage girl five years earlier, which her superior officer believes is unsolvable and only requests Jane investigate to waste her time; and the apparent suicide of a married woman, discovered by her husband when he arrived home from work, something about which strikes Jane as suspicious when she is asked to initially assist by a fellow DCI.

La Plante’s attention to detail is always superb – her thrilling plotting revolving on the intricacies of police procedure and forensic science, while creating a true sense of the time at which the story is set. We witness the misogyny Jane experiences from her male colleagues, exposing the systemic and institutional prejudice of the police force, as her superior officer and colleagues undertake a malicious campaign in the hopes she will quit, leading Jane to fear her entire career has been for nothing. But, against the odds, Jane is determined to fight for justice for the missing teenager and find closure for her mother, even if she will ultimately decide this is the final case she investigates.

With references to events of the previous nine novels and foreshadowing of events to come in the TV series, this is a perfectly poised final prequel novel, also introducing Jane to several characters whom we met in the first season of the series, including DS Bill Otley, WPC Maureen Havers, Detective Superintendent Kernan, and Peter Rawlins. Compelling and character-driven, ‘Whole Life Sentence’ is the culmination of a journey and final piece of the story – a captivating addition to the legacy of La Plante’s iconic and groundbreaking series, working brilliantly as both a conclusion to the prequel series and an immediate prequel to ‘Prime Suspect’ (it feels seamless, as if this was always the first part of that original story), and, of course, as its own standalone entry amongst the overall series of thirteen novels and the ongoing story of Jane’s life we witnessed in seasons four to seven of the TV series.

Throughout each novel, we have followed Jane’s development, unearthing her history and the many tragedies, trials and tribulations that led her to become the highly skilled and formidable senior police officer portrayed by Helen Mirren – full of passion and drive, an unwavering commitment to justice, and a burgeoning emotional attachment to each case that lies beneath the layers of her tough exterior and her learned need to survive in a man's world.

'Prime Suspect' was always ahead of its time, immediately striking and significant for being led by a senior female detective, in its first three seasons exploring institutional and societal sexism, racism, and homophobia and transphobia. The prequel series has honoured that tradition through its return to the 70s and 80s and now into 1991, exploring subject matter that remains as critical and timely over thirty years after the TV series began.

I still remember my excitement when ‘Tennison’ was announced and how I devoured it over a Christmas break. To have gone on to read a series of ten novels following Jane’s journey to ‘Prime Suspect’ has been a dream; it has been an absolute joy and I have loved every novel in this stellar series of gripping police procedurals. It’s a series I hope to revisit in the future (as I’ve done with several of Lynda’s other series), and in the meantime I now want to revisit the entire ‘Prime Suspect’ series to once again experience Jane’s story continuing from the conclusion of this novel.

Thank you, Lynda, for this fantastic series and such an incredible character!



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