Hooray for DI Stratton

 

3.5 stars

I really enjoyed Believe, S.M. Govett's previous work, so had high expectations for When You Looked Away. Something failed to gel for me, I'm sorry to say. As much as I was keen for the story as it applied to DI Helen Stratton, I felt impatience for the crux of the mystery behind who killed eleven year old Benjy Denton. I would read a book filled with DI Stratton's inner musings as she worked on a jigsaw puzzle, she's that noteworthy and compelling, but I could not get behind the cast of characters excluding her and her team. Laura, author of thrillers and mother of Benjy ,was crafted to be a certain way for a reason but I felt there was too much she failed to notice in the build up to the murder and after. Elementary things that could have propelled the story forward with pace. Her ex-husband and fiancé felt like caricatures that pulled the story through moment by moment in slow motion.

It may very well be me, I will happily hold my hand up to that. Wrong book at the wrong time but I feel as if I missed something crucial that kept me from full immersion into this story. A talented author with great skill, I look forward to the next outing if for nothing else but the wonderfully cross DI Stratton, sweet enthusiastic Dev and knowledgeable Pavarotti.