The year of the police procedural

This years’ Theakstons long list is full of police procedurals, including the start of three new series and also two police procedural debuts, too. But with the complexities of two former winners and a couple of long running series, it is very difficult to differentiate one procedural from the other in which one you would put near the top.



With Jane Casey’s ability to mask and have deeply inbedded clues, this is another example of how difficult this year has been. But in the case of The Close, masking was crucial, with at least four main plot strands. Some may argue that this was a lot, but as a newly published writer I can see why she has done this. Because the majority of the book was largely based around surveillance and sitting around whilst ‘nothing happens’ there had to be a number of distinct mysteries to stop the book from flattening out. Some of them so small, that if you were left purely to focus on those, you could get to the solution quickly. This to me, is a sign of good writing, as the multiple mysteries allow the book to move along without having that often present flabby middle.



I’ve now read three separate Jane Casey’s including the last two in the Kerrigan series, several years apart as no9 was also longlisted, too. This one had very little references to the other nine in the series and for once it could be argued that it could be read as a standalone – another tick in the box from me as a regular reviewer. It has made it even harder for me to decide which one is my favourite. It has made me determined now that I’m free from the pressures of constant writing and in my editing stage, that I can catch up with earlier books in the series and have done so by ordering them from the library and will be reviewing them soon.








https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/The-Close-Audiobook/B0BRNKH7X6?ref_pageloadid=Jr0KsKOGUjzMO6GO&ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_B0BRNKH7X6_2&pf_rd_p=7e7340a8-8768-4798-a0ce-83f879c09110&pf_rd_r=A5X3HC8AQTP0FT29976A&pageLoadId=svNyw8ysDHmBFtMk&creativeId=14d6a1c2-a3f8-499b-900a-1ae788c317b1