Trust No One is a great police procedural with a good mystery element to it. Enjoyed it and will read more of the series.

Wow! The first book I’ve read by this author but I doubt it will be the last!

Characters are what draw me in and keep me reading a series, this book was filled with believable and relatable ones and I was hooked!

Plenty of OMG moments and even though I haven’t read the previous books, I didn’t feel lost.

An absolutely delicious thriller filled with twists that kept me turning the pages!

Recommended!

EXCERPT: I should feel guilty, but I don't. It might not have gone according to plan, but that doesn't mean I didn't succeed.

How does someone who does this for a living feel? A contract killer, working for the government. Do they feel guilt? They must be handed a dossier: this is the target, this is their life, this is the time to do it and this is how much you'll be paid. Do they take pride in a job well done, or do they sometimes look at the folder in front of them and think - this man doesn't deserve to die? If they had been handed a dossier on Richard Taylor, would they hesitate or, like me, would they do what was necessary? Or better still, what about a serial killer? One of those ghouls they're always showing on Channel 5: the Barn Butcher. Did the Barn Butcher start out with his morals intact? Did he feel guilt? I guess what I really want to know, what's making me curious, is:did he mean to kill, that very first time?

ABOUT THIS BOOK: A marriage is what you make it, isn't it? It's what you put into it. It's not just about love, it's about understanding another person's point of view. Sometimes there are things you find out about yourself and each other which means the marriage has to end. Sad, particularly when kids are involved - but all pretty normal. Normal that is, until there's a murder. DS Jane Bennett and DI Mike Lockyer are called in to investigate one of the South London murder squad's most difficult and distressing cases yet - where family and friends come under scrutiny in the hardest of circumstances.

MY THOUGHTS: This seemed to be a lot more about DS Jane Bennett than Lockyer or, for that matter, the murder. But having said that, this was twisty with lots of evil, nasty, people to pick the villain from. But having said that, I expected more suspense, and it just wasn't there for me.

Trust No One was a bit of a conundrum. As I said, twisty, with evil nasty people, but very little suspense. I should have been furiously flipping the pages, but I wasn't. There was something lacking.....or perhaps there was just a little too much of Jane's private life. And it was all a bit flat...the dialogue, the lack of suspense, the characters, all cardboard cutouts.

Not a series I will be following up on I'm afraid.

***

THE AUTHOR: After ten years in London, working for a City law firm, Clare Donoghue moved back to her home town in Somerset to undertake an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University. She was long-listed for the CWA Debut Dagger in 2011.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Pan MacMillan via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of Trust No One by Clare Donoghue for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the 'about' page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com for an explanation of my rating system.

This review and others are also published on my webpage sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

They're an ordinary family, by modern standards. Richard and wife Nicola have split up, but are on reasonably amicable terms. The kids stay over with their Dad often enough. He makes time for them and their friends. Ok, so fourteen year old Harvey is dyslexic and has been diagnosed as having ADHD. He's also got a quick temper. But he's very protective of his little sister, 12-year-old Olive.

The kids are at that age when they start asking the really pertinent questions. The ones parents don't necessarily want to answer.

Richard has finally started dating again.

Then he's dead. In his bed. A peaceful looking corpse by all accounts… but it doesn't take long for it to be clear that this was not a 'natural causes' departure.

DI Lockyer is assigned as Senior Investigating Officer, but in real terms the case is handed to DS Jane Bennett. Bennett is only recently back at work following the harrowing events depicted in No Place To Die and alluded to occasionally in this one as the Hungerford case. True to the genre, Bennett has her family issues to deal with alongside finding a killer. In her case she's currently staying at her parents following the previous events, her father has had a stroke, her son is autistic – and just because life wasn't complicated enough already, her son's absent father has decided to return to the scene.

Donoghue keeps things within the bounds of possibility though. Lockyer seems to have now sorted himself out. To be fair he'd have had to if keeping his job was to be plausible and Bennett juggles things the way many of us do, by focussing on the work and hoping that we get the rest of it more or less right around the edges. Not good, not necessarily right, but fairly authentic I'd say.

In reviewing the previous book I complained that I felt Bennett would manage her un-sorted moments better than Donoghue lets her do. That's been fixed in this outing. She's not superhuman, but is now much more cohesively 'together' which is what I'd expect from someone in her position.

The story is told partially in flashback, with a few interspersed chapters slowly infolding Richard's final few weeks, but mostly it just follows the investigation. It's tautly plotted and moves along at a readable rate. The 'whodunit' was fairly obvious to me quite early, as were clues that might have been expected to pick up earlier than they do, but without a clear whydunit the tension does manage to be sustained. There are sufficient suspects to postulate various scenarios and for once none of the coppers go off down totally unfeasible blind alleys.

Ultimately, that's the only angle that pulls this one down from being a full five-star read: I'm not 100% convinced by the finally revealed motivation.

Nevertheless it's a good solid read, that doesn't need the backstory to be enjoyed, and it's only a matter of time before Lockyer and Bennett make it to the screen.

Bookbag was sent an ARC of this book which one of our reviewers requested. The above is her review. I did not download a copy.)