Review: Solid British Procedural
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 16, 2013
I'm only reserving  stars because the crime aspect was surprisingly without suspense or tension.  True, the serial crimes were heinous but non-violent.  (If that sounds impossible, trust me not to spoil the plot.)  I actually felt sorry for the killer as all eventually unfolded.  The clues were there, no red-herring  ploy - but there was no "aha moment."  And so as a mystery, I didn't get the page-turning aspect I wanted.  On the other hand, the book was well written, the characters fleshed out enough to be interesting, and some social issues were well handled.  Unlike other reviewers, I did not mind the Manchester tour:)  I also had no quibble with the Kindle edition mentioned by others, so, perhaps, it has now been cleaned up.  DCI Caton is the main, continuing, character in this first book, and he is mildly interesting if a little ordinary - divorced, early middle-aged, devoted to "the job."  The love interest is a profiler; that combo has been done to death - no pun intended - but they do seem a good pair.  The best news is that the entire 8-book series is available on Kindle, so if you get hooked, you can shop and shop.  I plan to continue with the series and see where this all leads.  In fairness to Bill Rogers, most procedurals do focus on the police team with the crimes being somewhat secondary, but I do hope he ramps up the suspense in the next books.