The Murder Wall is a police procedural par excellence and one of the most assured debuts I’ve ever read. It has short chapters with alternating viewpoints creating a breakneck pace and I found myself just tearing through it. Stylistically The Murder Wall is like the best kind of TV cop show. Kate Daniels is destined to take her place among the top rank of fictional detectives her drive and toughness, coupled with all too credible flaws make for an engaging heroine, something the crime genre is currently crying out for. The day-to-day slog of an investigation is realistically rendered, with a large cast of well-written characters giving a sense of weight often missing from this type of book. Mari Hannah has created a perfectly realised world here. Saying more will spoil the story for you, but you’ll be rooting for Kate all the way through this one. Hints of a conspiracy involving Daniels’ superiors muddy the waters and as the bodies begin to pile up the secrets at the heart of her divided loyalties lead to dissent within the ranks. Daniels is on his tail but the Stephens case is becoming increasingly complex. Stalking his prey, the killer works with brisk efficiency and leaves prayer cards in the mouths of his victims – the same MO as in the initial double murder. A colleague and a friend, she is also one of their best profilers and when Daniels sees the connection between Jo and the murder she is forced to make a decision which could ultimately wreck the promising career for which she has sacrificed so much.Īs the case evolves another murderer is on the loose. Jo Soulsby is already known to the police. Ambivalent and with a dubious alibi she seems just the type to shoot him in the chest.
As Daniels’ team delve deeper into the case they find his grown-up sons are happy to see the back of him and his young trophy wife is hardly the weeping wreck you’d expect. The Murder Wall opens with the horrific double murder of a young nun and her priest in a Northumberland church, a crime which goes unsolved and is still dogging Kate Daniels one year later when the action jumps ahead to the fatal shooting of a prominent local businessman in a swanky dockside development in Newcastle.Īlan Stephens was a man with enemies, even within his family. Her debut novel The Murder Wall kicks off a series of police procedurals featuring DCI Kate Daniels. Author Mari Hannah’s CV covers stints in the probation service, crown courts and prisons, so when this lady writes crime you can be assured she knows what she’s talking about. Written by Mari Hannah - One piece of advice most wannabe authors will be given is to ‘write what you know’.
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