Maeve is one of the few women in her murder squad, and this impacts almost everything she does. In The Reckoning she is paired with DI Josh Derwent, a super macho detective who has a mysteriously long history with her boss, DCI Godley. The case that they are looking into in The Reckoning involves the brutal murder of three men who “have form” (i.e. are listed in police files because they have either been charged or convicted) for sexually molesting children, i.e. registered pedophiles. Surprisingly, early on Kerrigan and Derwent discover the person(s) responsible for these pedophile murders: a crime boss named John Skinner who Godley and Derwent have had serious run-ins with before. However this is not the end of the mystery but the beginning of another. Skinner leads the police to an even more heinous series of crimes, starting with the disappearance of his 16-year-old daughter after she attended a pop-up nightclub at a warehouse.
Meanwhile, while Maeve is involved in trying to solve these crimes she is getting to know the only other female member of the murder squad, Liv Dwyer. Dwyer is paired with Maeve’s former boyfriend/love interest DC Rob Langton who Maeve is in an on/off relationship with. Maeve moves into a new housing situation (a large house converted into six apartments where she doesn’t tell her roommates what her job is and where her male flatmates seem a bit too interested in making her feel welcome to the neighborhood). Things get even weirder when police find a video of Maeve on an underground website doing things which makes it clear she is being videostalked by a creepy, secret admirer. The website is run by the same people who are the promoters for the night club where the 16-year-old disappeared.
Overall, The Reckoning is a very well-done British police procedural with a suspenseful plot and a very strong set of supporting characters. There’s a fair amount of time (almost too much) spent on Maeve’s romantic relationship with Rob which distracts from the primary story but since I like both characters it didn’t cause me to lose interest or detract from my overall engagement with the book. I really look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series although I do hope they settle the Rob-Maeve connection one way or the other very soon!
Title: The Reckoning.
Author: Jane Casey.
Paperback: 373 pages.
Publisher: Orbit.
Date Published: October 1, 2011.
Date Read: July 30, 2019.
OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).
PLOT: A.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: A-.
WRITING: A-.
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