“But the front door never opens…”
- Book: The Fragile Ones
- Location: California
- Author: Jennifer Chase
This is another of those detective series I kinda wish I had followed from the beginning, even though this story worked more than adequately as a stand alone. Author Jennifer Chase, did an amazing job at filling in the backstory as we went along and I never really felt short-changed on that front, however Katie Scott is such a complicated, emotional and damaged character, that I would have liked to have got to hear her story in her own words.
This ‘read alone’ case opened with a prologue which I knew in my heart of hearts, was setting a scene which was going to end badly. The investigation moved along at a fair old pace, although there were a couple of ‘What? – Really?’ moments. The ending as it was presented, was quite neatly tied up, although I was left with more than a few questions about the efficacy of this particular policing district. Oh! and the fourth thing you need for a good series thriller to succeed, is that the main protagonist lives long enough to fight another day, which thankfully Katie does, although this time it was quite a close call.
There were quite a few red herrings carefully placed to snare the not so wary reader and I admit that I got caught out by a couple of them, before I managed to work out roughly what was going on, although I have to come clean and say my suspect list was down to two names and I picked the wrong one!
As with any story which has the plight of children as its central theme, this gripping and very disturbing, multi-layered story, is rich in atmosphere, has an air which is constantly crackling with tension and sense of urgency which has everyone pulling out all the stops to solve. The chapters are just the right length to create natural deep breath breaks, in what is otherwise a fluid, fast moving, intense and confidently written storyline. The descriptive and observational narrative and dialogue, offered both a good sense of time, and a clear commentary about the locations the action took me to. There are no wasted words in this matter of life and death race against the clock.
The characters, although on the whole well developed and drawn, were definitely divided into two distinct camps. Those I was rooting for from the very start and those I loved to hate right from the get-go and the author did a great job at evoking those emotions, with her descriptive and highly visual narrative and dialogue. They were mostly quite open, relatable and fairly easy to engage with and invest in, with some good interaction and synergy between each other and also with me, the reader. However, there were one or two which were really multi-faceted and not altogether genuinely believable, so they were well and truly in my sights as potential ‘baddies’ right from the first time I met them, although I did trip myself up once or twice. Katie was clearly the character with the most emotional baggage, as it would seem, are so many other fictional detectives. Clearly her time in the armed forces and events she had witnessed during her various overseas tours of action, had taken their toll on her emotionally. It seems as though each of her police cases to date, has manged to push one of those warning buttons which have triggered some quite intense and potentially damaging responses. She is fighting her own personal battle to make the transition to civvy street a success and she has some very special people in her life who really want to help her succeed. Most of them are of the two-legged variety, however Katie’s four-legged friend, Cisco, deserves a special mention as the star who stole the show. As double acts go, they don’t get any better than this and I would really like to see Katie flourish and meet her full potential in her new career.
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