Rating: 4/5
The story revolves around a student’s complaint of sexual harassment against a tutor. It’s not a typical story by any means and is rather well done for much of its length, with some interesting discussion of issues of consent, but to say more would be too much of a spoiler. As Fawley and his team investigate, a murder is committed which introduces a second, far less believable plot thread which dominates the second half of the book. I was a little disappointed in this, in that it smacks of a slightly desperate search for a Twist to Ratchet Up The Tension; Hunter is better than that and I think this demeans her slightly.
Structurally, too, it’s not as well done as some others in the series. Hunter is still excellent on both police procedure (they do actually follow procedure!) and on press and social media responses to a story, and her characterisation is very good – especially of the regular members of Fawley’s team. However, there is more of a fragmented feel to this one, some slightly odd addressing of the reader directly and a great rush of revelation at the end which felt a bit forced.
All that said, it remains a good, involving read and a cut above a lot of stuff in this genre. Not a classic but I have rounded 3.5 stars up to 4 and I’ll certainly be continuing with the series.
(My thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley.)
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