ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Because She Looked Away by Alison Bruce
Because She Looked Away by Alison Bruce is published by Constable and is available now in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to Beth Wright for sending me a review copy.
After the sudden death of her sister, devastated detective DS Ronnie Blake relocates to Cambridge to help her brother Alex raise their sister’s young son, Noah. She reports for her first day but instead finds herself being questioned by a special investigations unit, nicknamed the DEAD Team.
With a small group of six, led by DI Fenton, the once-successful DEAD team has a single outstanding case, Operation Byron, and the failure to resolve it threatens the unit’s existence. Their most promising lead is an anonymous note linking three seemingly unconnected people: a convicted fraudster, a dead academic… and Ronnie’s sister Jodie.
When Ronnie is denied information about Operation Byron, she follows a lead slipped to her by Malachi, the youngest member of the team, and makes a discovery which links Operation Byron to a disturbing unsolved murder. She is rapidly drawn into an intricate web of deceit, buried secrets and tragedy and the discovery that her connection to Cambridge is far darker than she could ever have guessed.
Because She Looked Away is the first in a brand new series by Alison Bruce to feature DS Ronnie Blake. New to Cambridge, she expects to get to work as a detective, but a small team with only one operation left open, Operation Byron, wants to question her about her late sister who may turn out to be linked to a series of unsolved crimes.
I loved this premise as soon as I read the synopsis. I always enjoy a good police procedural but this had a slightly different focus, that of a police officer being questioned, and I was really drawn into the story because of that. Ronnie is a great character who brooks no nonsense but she’s also an excellent detective. She ends up working with the team who are questioning her, the so-called DEAD team and I thought the whole plot unfolded very well. I found it a bit complex at times, keeping track of all the characters and what was happening, but I did enjoy this twisty and tension-filled, often dark and disturbing read.
I think there’s lots of promise for the series to develop as it goes on and for the members of the team to grow. Because She Looked Away is a really good opener.
Alison Bruce is the author of 10 crime novels and two non-fiction titles. Her first novel, Cambridge Blue, was described by Publishers Weekly as an ‘assured debut’ and introduced both detective, DC Gary Goodhew, and her trademark Cambridge setting. She went on to write six further novels in the DC Goodhew series before writing two psychological thrillers I Did It for Us and The Moment Before Impact. Because She Looked Away is the first in a new series, again set in Cambridge but this time featuring DCI Ronnie Blake and the DEAD team. Alison herself lives just outside Cambridge and has been shortlisted twice for the CWA Dagger in the Library award.
