Book info

• Title The Woman in Black
• Author Kerry Wilkinson
• Year 2012
• Genre Thriller

Someone has left a severed hand in the centre of Manchester and the only clue Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniel has to go on is CCTV footage of a woman in a long black robe placing it carefully on the ground. With a lengthy missing persons list and frantic families wondering if the body part could belong to their absent loved ones, she has plenty to deal with – and that's before a detached finger arrives for her in the post. By the time a second hand is found and a local MP's wife goes missing, Jessica is left struggling to find out who the appendages belong to, how they are connected and just what the mysterious woman in black has to do with it all.

Thoughts

Mixed feelings about this one. On the positive side, it continued the series well, retained a great sense of the characters involved, and dealt well with past history influencing current events. The story was good, although I guessed the culprit quite quickly, without perhaps knowing all the details of how and why.

On the flip side, some of the more negative aspects that have been easier to overlook in the previous two books were a bit too obvious. It felt slightly rushed and could perhaps have done with a bit more editing. The main issue, I think, is a propensity to spell out the obvious, or “tell” instead of “show”, particularly in the middle of conversations which breaks the dialogue somewhat.

Overall though, I still enjoyed the book and I’m keen to read more adventures of Jessica and her friends.

Rating: 3 / 5