3 stars out of 5The story in this latest series entry is interesting and well thought out. The execution? Not so much.
Even if I don't mention the mother of all cliffhanger endings - never a way to win my heart - I kept running into "what the heck?" references I didn't quite understand simply because I've read only one of the previous books. For that reason, I can't recommend this as a standalone; to get the most out of this series, my advice is to start from the beginning.
Along the way, other issues bothered me as well. The book is set in Manchester, England - and having a wonderful, very British daughter-in-law, I'm fairly comfortable with most words, phrases and spellings that somehow were transformed when they [we] crossed the Pond (some for better, some for worse, IMHO). But in this instance, more than once something left me scratching my head and sending her an email or turning to Google for an explanation. Other times, the author seemed confused as well, such as when central character Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel reaches for a "cookie" and a couple of sentences later is eating a "biscuit." But when she popped a single broken "crisp" into her mouth (in the States, folks, that's a lone potato chip) and immediately had trouble talking because she had a "mouth full," I pretty much lost it.
As for the plot, Jessica has dragged her live-in fiance to Piccadilly Station in hopes of catching a pickpocket who's been targeting couples like them (why she has to explain the reason they're there when Adam complains is a bit of a mystery - surely she would have told him ahead of time). But just as she realizes her own purse has been victimized, Jessica gets a call that a body has been found in a waste bin. That turns out to be Damon Potter, a 19-year-old student and college rowing team member. Meantime, Jessica and her partner, Archie Davey, have been working on another major theft case that involves a robber with a so-far unidentifiable tattoo (although this, too, turns out to be such a well-known design that I couldn't believe no one in the entire Manchester police department had ever seen it before).
The initial investigation of the rower's death reveals a possibility that hazing may have been the cause, but it's suspicious enough for Jessica to lean toward murder. Although the student president of the rowing society, Holden Wyatt, is deemed a person of interest, Jessica is gobsmacked to learn that an unknown someone or someones way above her job level are determined that Wyatt must be prosecuted whether or not he's guilty. That, plus her immediate supervisor's sudden and inexplicable cold shoulder toward her, make her wonder if her career is in jeopardy. When yet another body turns up, it matters not to the powers-that-be; that's a case of a different color, and Wyatt remains expected to go down for Potter's murder no matter what Jessica thinks.
As I said at the beginning, the basic story is of sufficient interest to keep me reading (and I do thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read it in exchange for an honest review). But given all the inconsistencies, I'm sorry to say this one just didn't do it for me.
Scarred for Life by Kerry Wilkinson (Bookouture, February 2018); 375 pp.
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