She Treads Softly: Broken Circle

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Broken Circle

Broken Circle by Matt Brolly
4/28/26; 299 pages
Thomas & Mercer
DS Liam Kilshaw #3

Broken Circle by Matt Brolly is a highly recommended investigative crime thriller where modern murder meets ancient historical sites and folklore. This is the third novel in the DS Liam Kilshaw series.

In the Merry Maidens stone circle in Cornwall the body of a teenage girl is found posed in a kneeling position, with her face, hands and feet covered in clay and yellow ochre. The location could suggest a ritual or some specific purpose for the staging of the body in that location. Then two skeletons are found buries beneath a stone in the circle that looked disturbed. The last known person who was with the girl, a young man is now missing. Ties to the legends surrounding the stone circle need to be explored, along with other remote historical sites with stone monoliths/circles in the area, especially when another victim is discovered.

The opening will immediately grab your attention in this well-written, even-paced procedural. You really do feel the tension and stakes rising in each chapter as more information is uncovered and the body count rises. The narrative is told through the alternating point-of-views of Kilshaw and the unknown killer. DS Liam Kilshaw continues to have a good working relationship with his colleague and boss, Maya as they logically follow clues, background, history and other information, making this a solid police procedural.

Although this can be enjoyed as a standalone novel, at this point, after reading all three books in the series, I think there is much to be said for reading them in order. This serves to provide the background and context for some of the relationships and characters mentioned in the novel. The series at this point is: The Lines, The Replacement, and Broken Circle. They all have a strong sense of place and are solid procedurals.

Kilshaw, a former Marine, is a intuitive investigator who also suffers from PTSD and has alopecia. He is continuing to work on his interpersonal relationships, a skill with which he struggles. He is portrayed as a realistic, complicated individual with strengths and weaknesses, who also has a strong work ethic and the intelligence to follow the clues uncovered as he races against time before more bodies are found.

Broken Circle is a great choice for anyone who enjoy British procedurals. Matt Brolly is always a dependable author who writes compelling stories. Thanks to Thomas & Mercer 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.