Book info

• Title Behind Closed Doors
• Author Kerry Wilkinson
• Year 2014
• Genre Mystery

Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has barely left her house in months, isolated away from friends and colleagues. She may have given up on herself but one man is sure she still has something to offer. DCI Jack Cole gives her a chance at redemption: An opportunity to help a neighbouring force by discovering what is going on with a reclusive community living in a stately home in the middle of nowhere. People are going missing, turning up dead with only a vague link back to the house. But can Jessica beat her own demons in time to find out exactly what's going on behind closed doors?

Thoughts

This entry in the Jessica Daniel series is slightly different from the others which makes it a refreshing break from the slightly more formulaic crime series drama. Jess is dealing with a lot of emotions and working through grief from several different traumas, and uses her situation to infiltrate a cult and find out what sinister secrets they have.

The nature of the situation means that Jessica is sealed away from her more usual adventures - rather than rushing around like a tornado and shouting at everyone in and out of the police station, she’s forced to sit through hours of introspection, and work her way through her own issues.

Thankfully, that is broken up by flashbacks which show how she got into the situation she’s in, and it helps us (and Jess) to work forward to the resolution at the end. The cult crime is a pretty awful one that left me feeling distinctly disturbed, but there were a few good twists at the end to make sure it was as happy an ending as it can be.

Rating: 3 / 5