Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsPromising series opener - with some shortcomings.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 January 2021
Rating: 2.8/5
The market for police procedurals is a crowded one, so to have any chance of standing out from the crowd and being successful, the author needs to establish a lead protagonist with a backstory and character traits that are sufficiently different and engaging.
In "An Eye for an Eye" author, Carol Wyer, goes a long way towards achieving that. However, there are other aspects of this book that I found quite grating and they prevent me from being able to class this as more than a 3-star read overall.
DI Kate Young is on leave after having been exposed to a very traumatic situation while on duty some months earlier. Following a recent murder on her patch in Staffordshire, Kate is persuaded to come back to work and lead a team investigating the crime. Will her troubled mental state allow her to perform the task to the best of her ability and what disturbing truths might she uncover along the way?
I liked the premise of this story, which at times put me in mind of Abi Morgan's "River", which was screened on the BBC a few years ago. I also enjoyed the Staffordshire setting, as it is a part of the country that I am very familiar with.
The big downside for me was the dialogue, which frequently grated. Carol Wyer is clearly an intelligent lady and an accomplished wordsmith, but there were numerous occasions when the characters were inappropriately speaking words that were clearly the author's, rather than the content being consistent with the character in question. Consequently, this undermined the credibility of the scenario.
Overall, it was still an enjoyable novel and serves its purpose of setting up a new series.
p.s.
Note to publisher: A reference is made in the book to "Wednesday 2nd January 2021" , but 2nd January 2021 actually fell on a Saturday. Hopefully, this will be corrected in future editions.