Review: A Mystery That Delivers
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2013
At last, a mystery that delivers and doesn't creep you out.  I've had my fill of crucifixions, mutilations and acid baths, all graphically described.  Must dead body be pilled on dead body (a minimum of six) to have a mystery?  Of course not, and Hushabye is proof.  Someone murders the nanny and kidnaps Charley, a three-month-old baby.  Detective Sergeant Kate Redman (a newbie) is assigned to the case, a puzzling one indeed, for no ransom note is forthcoming.  Everyone is a suspect.  The person I felt responsible turned out to be a victim.  The mystery is there, for any amateur sleuth to decipher.  But there's more.  There's Kate's story.  She has a life, although not a particularly pleasant one.  She has a mum who drinks too much and a past she wants to forget.The writing is straight-forward and concise, as a detective novel should be.  The author doesn't shy away from the occasional four-letter word.  Her feminine side comes through in phrases like, "There was something slightly unsettling about her expression, something slightly too much of the cat that got the cream."  I found this novel superb because I got all I needed to know and none of what I didn't.