AUTHOR: LISA CUTTS
Pages: 347
Date: 14/07/2013
Grade: 4
Details: no. 1 Nina Foster
Received from Myriad Editions
Through Nudge
Own
The investigation starts when the body of a woman is
found. She’s been stabbed several times and has been dead for a few days at
least. Detective Constable Nina Foster is one of many officers recruited to
help with the investigation into the death of the woman who turns out to have
been a prostitute with an eight year old son.
It’s not long after that a second body is discovered.
Although there is no known connection between the woman and the second victim,
his wounds seem to indicate a link between the two deaths.
As the investigation progresses the body count
continues to rise and for a long time any connection between the victims
remains obscure. When a link is at last established it also reveals a
connection to a traumatic event in Nina’s past. Now she has to add worrying
about being allowed to stay on the investigation to all the investigative
threads running through her head.
But even with evidence slowly pointing the
investigators in the right direction, it will take a violent confrontation and
a surprising rescuer to bring the investigation to a close and a rather
surprising ending to the book.
This book is Lisa Cutts’ first novel and mystery.
Drawing on her own experience as a police officer she writes a realistic yet
deeply layered mystery. In fact, this is a book that requires attention from
the reader. There are multiple characters with complicated connections between
them to keep track of. And, since this is the first book in a planned series, a
lot of attention is also paid to establishing Nina Foster as a well-rounded and
realistic protagonist.
Initially Nina seemed a bit of a stereo type, with her
habit of viewing every single man she met as a possible date or partner and her
constant preoccupation with wine. Taking
into account Nina’s background though I can only applaud the author for not
making her main character a lot more neurotic than she was. Many authors I can
think of would have taken this character and made her appear far more disturbed
than Mrs. Cutts did, just to add drama to the story. With the story-line being
what it is this book didn’t need that extra dimension and I’m delighted she
resisted what must have been a rather tempting opportunity.
The mystery is well plotted, the investigation
realistically described and the resolution both exciting and believable. I had
a bit of a problem keeping the various characters involved in the investigation
separated in my mind. While it is completely realistic that an investigation as
described in this book would involve numerous police officers, and it also
makes sense to introduce the characters that will play a role in what is to be
a series of mysteries in the very first book, I did find myself getting a bit
confused at times. On the other hand, there were a few characters who I imagine
will make return appearances in future Nina Foster mysteries, and those were described
in such a way that I got a good impression of who they were and what role the
play in Nina’s life without taking any pace out of the thrilling story-line.
I’m impressed with the balance the author managed to strike; she gave me enough
information about her characters to keep me interested yet left me curious
about future books with everything that hasn’t yet been revealed.
The short of it is that I really enjoyed this book. It
is wonderful to find a new series with an interesting and realistic protagonist,
a well written story and a complex and well executed mystery. I’m going to keep
an eye out for future Nina Foster mysteries. If this debut is anything to go
by, the world is one very talented mystery author richer.
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