Fourth instalment of DI Clare Mackay series from Scottish based novelist Marion Todd via Canelo Crime.
Over the last two years of reviewing I have been fortunate to fall into via the NetGalley website the opportunity to review crime thrillers, one of my favourite genres. When liking publishers, you get familiar with a publishers writers and genres in terms of conventions and trends. This reader particularly likes MJ Lee and his Manchester noir novels, while also falling for the work of Marion Todd and her DI Clare Mackay series. It is the fourth book of the series, but Todd is not slowing down.
It is Hogmanay, Clare Mackay is set to return to work at her St. Andrews constabulary following the Christmas festivities, yet her return to work normality is ruptured by the death of a woman at her home alone with no signs of breaking in, instead she has been strangled and left for dead in her bathtub.
After initial enquiries, investigations lead to the discovery of another body in the Kinness Burn, this linkage of water in the killings leads Mackay and her partner Chris (engaged to Sara) to believe a serial killer is on the loose in the fair city.
What this reader likes in particular about Todd's writing is that the author clearly loves her main character, some writers can get a bit resentful of a famous character, yet Todd loves to spend time with her protagonist and her friends. The banter or dialogue between Clare and Chris is so winning, the slight joshing of Chris' new teeth whitening experience and the camaraderie in her workforce springs off the page. We are so familiar of television depictions of maverick cops and rogue policemen, it is always refreshing to see a positive workplace environment, a trait she shares with MJ Lee.
The plotting within this novel is sprightly, light and clever in its deliberate pacing - she allows Mackay moments of levity and time to herself in the pursuit of love and even the opportunity of a haircut, time to herself despite working fourteen straight days in pursuit of the killer.
Personally, I feared that Todd may have run out of steam and this book took a while to get going but once the second body is found in the burn, this novel took off and as per her first three novels it was devoured in three sittings over my own Hogmanay celebrations.
What They Knew is published from Canelo on 11th February 2021 on all formats
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