Cruel Acts (Maeve Kerrigan, Book 8)

Jane Casey

Apr 2019 · Maeve Kerrigan Book 8 · Sold by HarperCollins

About this ebook

The Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the Irish Independent crime fiction book of the year!

Don’t miss the newest Maeve Kerrigan and Josh Derwent thriller – A STRANGER IN THE FAMILY – Coming March 2024. Available to Pre-Order now!

Guilty?
A year ago, Leo Stone was convicted of murdering two women and sentenced to life in prison. Now he’s been freed on a technicality, and he’s protesting his innocence.

Not guilty?
DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent are determined to put Stone back behind bars where he belongs, but the more Maeve digs, the less convinced she is that he did it.

The wrong decision could be deadly...
Then another woman disappears in similar circumstances. Is there a copycat killer, or have they been wrong about Stone from the start?

‘Magnificent’ Marian Keyes

‘Clever, classy crime fiction’ Erin Kelly

‘Brilliant’ Fiona Barton

‘Terrific’ Sarah Hilary

‘I adored this book’ Liz Nugent

‘Authentic’ Jo Spain

‘Compulsive’ Patricia Gibney

‘Powerful’ Helen Fields

‘Kept me turning the pages long into the night’ Rachel Abbott

‘Emotional’ Sinéad Crowley

Ratings and reviews

Somehow, and I am not sure how, Jane Casey is a completely new author to me. This strikes me as particularly odd as this is a genre that I have read extensively in and she is hardly a new author. I might be late to the delights of Kerrigan novels (this is the eighth after all) but this is definitely a case of better late than never. Despite having no knowledge of the characters it is easy to slot in to their world and I never felt like I was missing out on anything except some personal history between her and Derwent. It also appeared that there was little regurgitation of previous storylines so this worked as a more or less stand alone story. The thing that really stood out for me was the relationship between Derwent and Kerrigan. The banter between them and the way they could completely frustrate each other was wonderfully detailed on the page, the dialogue in particular was crisp, sharp and wholly believable. In all honesty the relationships between everyone we meet on the MIT are very realistic and with only a few short sentences a rich world is revealed to the reader, more importantly (and impressively) a wholly believable one. I am not going to talk much about the plot here. The blurb tells you more or less what to expect from the criminal investigation side of things and I fear that even mentioning some of the characters will lead me down the path of revealing far more than I should. Suffice to say it is cleverly crafted with enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep you scratching your head and mentally crossing out your theories as time goes on. Despite the grim horror of the crimes nothing is sensationalised and there are no flashbacks to the crimes here beyond witness statements, so no real blood, guts and gore which does make a refreshing change for the genre. This is an accomplished book with strong characters, a free flowing and elegant plot and some genuine laugh out loud moments. THIS IS AN HONEST AND UNBIASED REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED VIA THE PIGEONHOLE.

About the author

Jane Casey is no stranger to the crime world. Married to a criminal barrister, she’s got the inside track on some of the country’s most dangerous offenders, giving her writing an unsettlingly realistic feel.

This authenticity has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. They have been nominated for several awards and in 2015 Jane won both the Mary Higgins Clark Award and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for The Stranger You Know and After the Fire, respectively. She is also an active member of Killer Women, a London-based group of crime writers.

Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.