She Treads Softly: The Twelfth Floor

Thursday, November 7, 2024

The Twelfth Floor

The Twelfth Floor by Michelle Kidd
11/14/24; 400 pages
Joffe Books
DI Jack Macintosh #6

The Twelfth Floor by Michelle Kidd is a highly recommended procedural and murder mystery. This is 6th in the series but works well as a standalone novel.

DI Jack Macintosh is back with his team, DS Chris Cooper, DS Amanda Cassidy, and DC Trevor Daniels on the trail of a murderer who left a horrific crime scene which included dismembered body parts at an empty flat on the twelfth floor of a rundown tower block. The following day more dismembered body parts are found at another scene. This case brings the team into the under belly of the city and adds even more stress to Jack's life.

This well-written procedural and murder mystery follows both the police investigation and several suspects as well as potential victims of the fiendish killer in the narrative. The tension remains high throughout the novel as the team is racing against time to solve the murders and prevent any new victims from meeting their demise. The complicated plot is very intriguing, but also descriptive. The details of the crimes are very graphic, so readers may need to consider that beforehand.

Jack Macintosh is a fully realized character and he receives even more development in this installment of the series. It was easy to follow the plot even though this is the first novel in the series that I have read. The ending is heart stopping and very satisfying. Thanks to Joffe Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.