Source: Review copy from No Exit Press for the Random Things blog tour – thank you.
Braeside is one of those small Scottish towns that thrives on tourists who come for the hiking. The residents all know each other- not all of them are liked. The Howard family are incomers from London, who built a restaurant that most of the locals can’t afford, and being late payers for work done aren’t popular. Their daughter Lily has recently returned to the family home after several years away and has rekindled her friendship with best friend Georgia.
Another returnee is Ruth Lindsey, a detective with the police. She was born and bred in Braeside, and has recently come back from working in the Glasgow Major Investigations Team for reasons that we will discover as the novel progresses. It’s a bit different working in a small rural force, where not a lot happens.
Then, of course, something does. Lily Howard goes missing. She enjoyed hiking in the braes, she left a note for her parents saying she’d be back by teatime – but she wasn’t. Mountain rescue are mobilised and many residents turn out to help in the search. They may not have liked her parents, but a missing young woman always demands their assistance.
She’s not found in initial searches, and Ruth’s boss is put under pressure to bring in another detective to help, Enter DI Max Tolmie from Edinburgh, a youngster with way less experience than Ruth – but fresh eyes and all that… Ruth swallows her pride and welcomes his help, they’ll work well together (for the most part), and there are plenty of people in the town who knew Lily who need interviewing.
But something else is happening. Lily’s intragram account is getting lots of attention, thousands and thousands of hits worldwide. Then strangers show up in town asking questions, getting in the way. Amongst them is influencer Mia Chaplin from London; famous for solving a cold case crime. She’d been looking for a new case when she gets a news alert about a missing London woman in Scotland.
She has a beautifully symmetrical face covered in freckles. It feels as though she’s walked right past me. I can almost smell her perfume.
Like I said, the case chooses you.
Mia is a divisive influence in the town. Some confide in her, others see her as interfering, her feed, often live, is racking up hits. Ruth is naturally of the latter persuasion, and when Mia takes a step too far – shattering one of the town’s family’s lives with consequences that all will regret – Ruth will have to try and shut her down. Mia is distracting her from the investigation, and Ruth, having many close friends in the community is herself a target for Mia, whom she begins to suspect has some ulterior motive in her involvement.
Written in short pacy chapters, Sleuth alternates mostly between the voices of Ruth and Mia. As Mia plays cat and mouse with Ruth, making and broadcasting what she calls facts, we begin to see the case take its toll on Ruth, who is arguably too close to many of the town’s residents who could be suspects or have valuable information that would help. Lily’s parents Vanessa and Martyn don’t have a good relationship with their daughter, whom the evidence so far points to having mental health issues, which leads Ruth to question her own reasons for coming to Braeside. This third novel by Telegraph journalist Langley is a gripping psychological thriller, which I enjoyed a lot.
Source: Review copy. No Exit Press, paperback original, 331 pages. BUY at Amazon UK or Waterstones via my affiliate links.
