Book Review: Crossing the Line (Jessica Daniel #8) by Kerry Wilkinson

Published: September 11th 2014

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Pages: 300

Available: Kindle and Paperback

Order from Amazon here

 

Blurb



Long before Jessica Daniel became a police officer, Manchester was once a ghost city after dark. Fear ruled as people were afraid to be out by themselves, the notorious Stretford Slasher terrorising its inhabitants.

Twenty-five years on and the media are feeling nostalgic over the milestone but Jessica has a new panic to worry about. Apparent strangers are being targeted in daylight, the attacker unworried about being caught. If only she and her team could find him…

It’s the coldest spring in memory and Jessica has old friends to look out for, plus secrets - so many secrets - that should have long been buried.

 

Review

 

Firstly I would like to thank Pan Macmillan for sending me a copy of this book to review.  I’ve not read many crime novels recently and this is the first time I have encountered the author Kerry Wilkinson and the Jessica Daniel novels. I didn’t realise this was book eight in the series so I wasn’t sure whether or not to read this but it says it is book 1 in “Season 2” and is a good place to start for new readers, so I decided I  would just jump and review this book as it is.

 

Jessica Daniel has been recently promoted to Detective Inspector and I’m guessing this is the reasoning behind the season 2 label.  Jessica is a very complex  character to understand  and as the book starts right in the middle of the action  it took me a good third of the book to understand a bit more about her. There are lots of hints about her past which did help me to gain more insight into her character but also gave away things which probably happened in previous books, so if you haven’t read them and want to I would recommend reading from the start if you don’t want spoilers.

 

I did feel that the first third of the book was quite slow in what was happening and it did take me a while to completely get into this book but once the case started to unfold  I was hooked, wanting to know what happened. Some plot twists were a bit unexpected and a bit abrupt but somehow it all linked together and formed a cohesive ending.

 

Crossing the Line is an honest look at the gritty Manchester underworld with a fearless and likeable female lead in Jessica Daniel. I’ve had a taste for Kerry Wilkinson’s writing and will definitely be back for more. Hopefully I will have time to start from book one and catch up before book nine appears.

 

Rating 4/5