She Treads Softly: The Innocent Ones

Sunday, April 28, 2019

The Innocent Ones

The Innocent Ones by Neil White
Hera Books: 4/24/19
eBook review copy; 404 pages
ISBN-13: 9781912973071

The Innocent Ones by Neil White is a highly recommended investigative legal thriller.

Dan Grant, a criminal defense lawyer, and Jayne Brett, a private investigator, are teaming up to look into the murder of London journalist Mark Roberts. Dan is representing Nick Connor, a petty thief who has been charged with Roberts' murder. When the victim's mother comes to Dan and claims that Connor is likely innocent because her son would have been investigating a previous criminal case and the real killer would be associated with whatever Mark was investigating.

Trying to find out what Mark was investigating will allow Dan to find the real perpetrator and get his client off the hook, so he calls in Jayne to help uncover what Mark Roberts was looking for, who he was talking to and, most importantly, why. The case leads back to a series of child murders in Yorkshire over twenty years ago and the man who is in prison for them. Apparently Roberts has uncovered some secrets that have led him to believe the convicted man was innocent. The real trouble is that exposing some secrets can be deadly.

This is a very well written legal thriller with plenty of twists, turns, danger, secrets, and surprises. At the start there are two story lines, both of which are compelling. These merge in the second half of the narrative and the tension rises along with the intrigue. This is the third and final book in the series featuring Dan Grant and Jayne Brett. I haven't read the previous two in the series, From the Shadows and The Darkness Around Her, but that didn't lessen my enjoyment of The Innocent Ones.

The characters are well developed, especially as this is the third book featuring them. I didn't feel like I was missing much jumping into book three. The two work well together and have a nice chemistry between them. The action starts slowly at first, but there is plenty of back story being shared and inside information given to the reader. There is evil afoot and it becomes more and more palpable as the investigation and story unfold. Then the narrative and action take off with the twists and discoveries.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Hera Books.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.