The Stranger You Know: A Maeve Kerrigan Crime Novel (Maeve Kerrigan Novels) - Hardcover

Casey, Jane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1250048834 ISBN 13: 9781250048837

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2014

Synopsis

He meets women. He gains their trust. He kills them. That's all London police detective Maeve Kerrigan knows about the man she is hunting. Three women have been strangled in their homes, and it appears to be the work of the same sadistic killer. With no sign of break-ins, every indication shows that the women let their attacker in willingly. The victims' neighbors and friends don't seem to remember anything unusual or suspicious, and Maeve is almost at a loss about how to move forward with the investigation.

Then the evidence starts to point to a shocking suspect: DCI Josh Derwent, Maeve's partner on the police force. Maeve refuses to believe he could be involved, but how well does she really know him? Secrets Derwent has long kept locked away are coming back to haunt him, and the more Maeve learns about her partner's past, the more difficult it is to dismiss him as a suspect. After all, this is hardly the first time Derwent's been accused of murder.

Jane Casey returns with her most outstanding novel yet in The Stranger You Know, a taut thriller and an intimate portrayal of complicated, all-too-human characters.

About this title

About the Author

JANE CASEY was born and raised in Dublin. A graduate of Oxford with a master's of philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin, she lives in London, where she works as an editor. The Stranger You Know is her fourth novel.

Reviews

*Starred Review* A serial killer is targeting single women in London, and Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan is included in the investigating team. But her colleague, politically incorrect and misogynistic Detective Inspector Josh Derwent, is definitely excluded: the murderer’s MO of strangling his victims and removing their eyes echoes the killing of Derwent’s first love, Angela Poole, 20 years earlier. Although Derwent was cleared of that crime and still tries to solve it, he fits the profile of the current killer and is considered a suspect. But not by Maeve, who disobeys orders from the top not to communicate with Derwent, with whom she has a prickly relationship, as she probes the cold-case Poole murder. Although one aspect of the killings is wrapped up rather hastily, this is more focused than the three earlier entries in the Maeve Kerrigan series, all solid police procedurals with exceptionally well-drawn characters whose relationships continue to develop in each entry. Derwent, a brilliant copper in Maeve’s eyes despite his numerous personality defects, serves as a foil and balance for her, and, with him at the center here, this novel attains further complexity in the interplay of the police-force members. Prime crime fiction. --Michele Leber

Edition details

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250048834
• ISBN 13: 9781250048837
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384