This was my first book by this author. I had high hopes after reading the description but had a hard time getting into it. It was just ok for me. This was an ARC read through NetGalley.

The author has two successful series in publication. This is a new series featuring Teigan Craft. A house in a Birmingham suburb is being refurbished. In a hidden recessed area a woman's mummified body is found.
The senior investigating officer is Detective Chief Inspector Steve Thompson. Thompson is given very little assistance. Two male detective constables and police constable Naz Sandhu. He is however promised assistance from a Teigan Craft a forensic psychologist. When Thompson meets Craft she is uncommunicative, not a team player. She is used to the theory. She prefers to receive emailed details and replies with her thoughts in the same way.
Teigan gets on well with Sandhu but finds the two detective constables sexist. She finds Steve Thompson difficult to relate to. However she enjoys the insight from a visiting systems analyst. Teigan lives alone but has a good relationship with her partner Tom ( who works away a great deal ).
The house where the woman's remains were found backs onto a wooded area. Other women have been attacked there. When the remains of a young woman are found, Steve's bosses and the media are looking for a quick resolution.
However Teigan is feeling out of her depth and wants to quit the investigation. Is her police career over before it really started?
A good start to a new series. I look for more from Teigan. Recommended.

Thank you to Net Galley and Severn House for the chance to read and review this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
I kept waiting for this book to get better, but it didn't. I felt very little connection to the story or the characters. The blurb sounded good, but this book just wasn't for me. Even the end was a letdown.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to leave feedback on this new series. Although I read all of it some areas felt familiar - as if the story and the characters had been used before by another author somewhere in my recollection. It was on the whole entertaining - I am sure the series, if AJ Cross does continue with these characters, will improve over time.

psychological-thriller, psychologist, multiple-murder, cold-case, office-politics, new-series, first-in-series, psychopath, lies, secrets, stress****

I really dislike reading about serial killers, but I wanted to give this new series a try. Tiegan Craft is the professor of forensic psychology who has more than enough psychological baggage and coping mechanisms of her own. DCI Thompson is the Homicide lead with an assortment of classic types of DIs on the team. He doesn't want to be paired with Dr. Craft, she in no way fits into his scheme of detection or simplification, but he has no more choice than she does. The first body is mummified remains found in the wall of a house under remodeling, but it is only the first of too many and they are all connected. The professionals and the suspects are all classics to any jail nurse, and they make for interesting character studies. The investigation is fraught with problems and twists. I feel that the storyline needs a little smoothing out and fine tuning but I am looking forward to next in series.
I requested and received a free temporary EARC from Severn House via NetGalley. Thank you. Avail Nov 5, 2024 #TeiganCraftForensicMysteriesBk1

The Loose End by A.J. Cross is the first book in the Teigan Craft forensic mystery series. I like the other books by this author, but this new series fell flat for me. I will not be reading more as I did not like any of the characters or how they interacted with each other. They never felt connected and were always bickering.

#TheLooseEnd #NetGalley @SvrnRvrPublish

this book follows professor teigan craft, who specialises in forensic psychology, and is called to assist dci steve thompson in a murder investigation, after a mummified body was found in a house that was being renovated.

craft and thompson butt heads and can’t seem the work together properly, craft works better by trying to piece together what kind of individual would commit these crimes that unfold throughout the sorry, whereas thompson is more by the book and needs solid evidence.

the book, for the first half, didn’t really seem to flow and i feel like a lot of information was being thrown around, without any actual point to why it was being spoken about. i did really start to enjoy this book about half way through, the pace started to pick up and i was more and more intrigued as to who had done it, once you find out who had done it, you realise there was little parts in the book that was hinting towards the murderer, but i didn’t find it predictable at all, i was glad for that.

overall, it was an okay read, i didn’t particularly care for the two main characters relationship, and thompson was a bit of a flat character. craft was more intriguing and interesting throughout this story and i stayed for her.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for my copy of The Loose End by A J Cross.
This is the first of a new series featuring Professor Teigan Craft, a neurodiverse forensic psychologist. She is called in to assist with a murder case.
When I first started reading the book I found it hard to get into and put it aside for a few days, but when I picked it up again, it started to flow and I enjoyed the interaction between Teigan and the DCI she had called in to help Steve Thompson. The combination worked well together and I hope he will feature in any further books.
There are red herrings and mis-directions through the story and it makes for compelling reading.

This was a good read. Some of the twists were good. But I feel like this could turn into a great series

This was a good read! I really wanted more shocks and twist but I enjoyed the plot. The characters were well explained and the thrills were high on the list!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the advance eARC of this book.

This is the first, in what I am assuming, will be a new series for A.J. Cross. I love the other two series and had very high hopes for this. Sadly they weren't met. Teigan Craft, a forensic psychologist is pressured into working with DCI Thompson on the case of a mumified body found in a house undergoing refurbishment. Thompson wants an easy life just handling burgleries, car thefts and other routine inquiries. Solve it and home by 6 seems to be his motto. Teigan isn't sure she's capable, or whether she even wants to work with a team. They certainly don't want to be working together. I found the book dragged. So much time was spent reiterating why each one didn't want to be doing this job. The characters didn't gel and it seemed like the action really happened in the last quarter of the book. I do realize it takes time to develop the stories behind the two main characters, and for this reason I find many first books in a series to be clunky, not to my taste, and I usually don't read them. Since I love this author's other works, I expect the next book in series (if it does become a series) to be much better than this book. 2 out of 5 stars.

To start with the storyline seemed an interesting one.
This did not continue, the rest of the book seemed to concentrate on the two main characters squabbling.
I do not like to leave negative feedback but really this was not for me.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for my copy.

I found The Loose End rather pedestrian, relying on conflict between the two main characters rather than a strong plot. The premise of a DCI who wants an easy life, a bit of a by-the-book copper, paired up with an imaginative forensic psychologist is a good one. But the implementation is lacking, as repeated arguments seem to the the main outcome.

Prof Teigan Craft is potentially a strong character, but her role is devalued by perceptions if her personality and individualistic working style. She obviously has autism, a fact that isn't "revealed" until the end of the novel. Had this been recognised the mystery could have been solved a lot sooner.

So an interesting start to a new series, but the next episode needs a stronger plot to stretch the development of the characters.

No one has seen reclusive Emma Matheson for years. But when her mummified remains are found in the cellar of a property in Birmingham during a renovation, the chilling discovery raises more questions than answers! Good book! I definitely liked this book but it didn’t hold my attention for some reason?! It had the usual, suspense, intrigue, murder, mystery, and a good who done it! The story was interesting but like I said my mind kept wandering?! It’s a decent read but not one of my top favorites! Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me!

I did not enjoy this book at all. I was so excited to read it based on the blurb, but once I started reading, it was difficult to keep going. I absolutely hated the main characters. They were petty and insolent. I didn't even like the writing style. I found it to be choppy and not enjoyable to read at all. I couldn't even finish this one. The longer I read, the more I cringed.

Sorry - this one just didn't do it for me at all.

Thank you #netgalley and #severnhouse for the eARC. Better luck next time - I can only give this a 1 star review.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

2.5* rounded up.

Teigan Craft, a professor of forensic psychology, is foisted on DCI Thompson as he investigates the discovery of a mummified body concealed behind plasterboard in a house which is being renovated. Thompson and Craft spend the novel bickering with one another about their differing approaches and flouncing off before returning and getting on with things until the next little squabble. Craft makes some deductions and creates profile elements which seemed huge leaps to me, but of course they turn out to be correct.

There were other things that annoyed me about this novel: an identity witness being shown only one photo and asked if it was her attacker; the ridiculous ploy used at the end to draw the killer out; the confusion about what had been happening in/to the house over the last few years; the way the pathologist was referred to in the space of a few pages as having a 'robust shape', then as having 'bulk', then as having 'a generous rear' - she's a doctor for heaven's sake.

Not for me.