Broadland
Crime, Female Detectives, Mystery
David Blake
DI Tanner, Book # 1
Black Oak Publishing
April 5th 2019
ebook
321
English
March 9, 2019 March 11, 2019
When a girl’s body is found strangled, raped, and horrifically mutilated by a boat’s propeller, deep in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, newly arrived Detective Inspector John Tanner is asked to assist with the investigation.
At first, all the evidence points to a man who had a multi-million pound reason to kill her. But when an alibi is produced from an unexpected source, and another body appears at the base of a slipway, Tanner finds himself turning to local girl, Detective Constable Jenny Evans for help.
As a more intimate relationship begins between them, they find themselves facing a race against time to identify a lethal adversary, one with a lust for blood and a mind set on revenge.
About the book
I would like to thank NetGalley and the author for my ARC in exchange for an honest review. Obviously I read it in English.
Detective Inspector John Tanner is a destroyed man by his daughter’s murder and from the crowded and crime-filled streets of London, he moves to a small village, Wroxham near Norwich, England. Here he is in charge of the Missing Persons section and immediately, on the first day, he finds himself investigating the disappearance of a woman, Jane Richardson, with DC Janny Evans. Soon the disappearance turns into murder and Tanner clashes with a veteran of the department, DI Burgess.
In my general opinion, I liked the book, the chapters are short and so this is in favor of the author. I like the style and also the criminal investigations narrated during the plot. The only two flaws, but this is a very personal opinion, are the “clash” between Tanner and Burgess and the romantic story between Jenny and Tanner (which is not really a story because we are at a high school crush level in this first book).
As for the first point, I find the clash too cliché, because it is used in many crime books and is an expedient to humiliate one of the two (usually the non-protagonist) and to bring out the protagonist as the good character of the situation. Do not misunderstand me, I don’t like when the protagonist is diminished, but neither when he/she is put in the light at the expense of someone else.
As for the second point… what can I say… it was clear since the beginning that the two were attracted to each other, before even starting with the case we see this attraction and I find it out of place and deterrent to the figure of Jenny Evans. But is it possible that police women always have a crush for the boss? Ever heard of a policeman having a crush for the boss (woman boss, not that there are many)? This chauvinism must end. If this romantic story had started a little later in the books, maybe I could have accept it (but maybe not), but I find it another cliché having it so early in the book.
If you take out these two points from the equation, I like the plot, the murderer’s motivations, even if it was easy to understand the trick he used. For this reason I will most likely read the second volume.
I have a question… but in England and Ireland don’t policemen have guns? Both here and in another book (the Irish one) I find that they don’t have guns when they are face to face with a murderer…
