Where She Lies (Detective Finnegan Beck, #1)

by Michael Scanlon

• ASIN: B07KFM66BJ
• Publish Date: 2019
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 327
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Where She Lies is the first book in a new series by Michael Scanlon. Released 8th Feb 2019 by Bookouture, it's 327 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. Alternate title: The Quiet Hours.

I've been on an Irish crime kick lately. There are a number of really rewarding modern procedurals set in Ireland the last few years and this is a promising debut to join the genre. This book's not just a modern procedural murder mystery set in Ireland with a tortured male lead character who drinks and smokes too much and has entanglements with the opposite sex that leave him unfulfilled. It is all those things, yes, but where it could just have easily just devolved into whiny pathos, it is very well written with clearly defined characters who obey internal motivation and aren't two dimensional cardboard cutouts. Even the secondary and tertiary characters are meticulously drawn. The dialogue is very well written and never clunky. I was happy to see that the dialogue never devolved into the over-the-top rendering of accents and slang that a lot of regional authors fall prey to - it flows naturally and smoothly.

This is not a cozy mystery. It's a modern murder procedural and there is a fair bit of graphic violence. A couple of scenes in particular were gruesome (but not gratuitous in any way). The language is rough, but not unduly so. There is tangential dialogue concerning non-consensual sex, but not directly related to the plot action. There is drug use scattered throughout the book, and discussions of sexual encounters with underaged females (not a spoiler, the first mention is literally in the prologue).

Very well written, exciting and it moves along at a good clip. The climax and denouement were good and 'within the rules of the game'. I did not pick out the murderer within the first 25% of the book.

Four stars, I will definitely be sticking with the author and eagerly await more stories.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Bookouture for letting me take part in this tour and for my copy of this book via netgalley. I am a sucker for an Irish accent so a Detective series set in Ireland was an instant must.

The main character is Beck. Beck has recently been moved to Cross Beg from Dublin. There is a big mystery as to why Beck has been demoted and moved to the sleepy town of Cross Beg. I am intrigued to find out more of Beck's backstory as the series continues. I want to know how he got into the situation in Dublin that led to his demotion. I feel there is quite a story there.

This book, however, is about the murder of Tanya. A teenager who is found strangled in the woods. There are multiple suspects and as the story unravelled I really struggled to work out who the culprit was.

Michael did an excellent job of building the suspense and mystery. The beginning was slow but as the story developed the I was hooked. I really raced through the last third of this book!

I really enjoyed unravelling this mystery and I can't wait to return to Detective Beck and his story.