Heartlands (DI Jessie Blake #1) by Kerry Watts
Genre: Crime Fiction, Police Procedural
Read: 28th March 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 21st March 2019)
★★★★★ 5 stars
Before I started this book, I did what I always do and read some of the other reviews to get a feel for the general consensus. Despite others' opinions, I still go in with an open mind - which may sound strange considering I check out the reviews beforehand with the idea of what to expect - because when I open the book, it's my opinion and my opinion alone that decides whether I am going to enjoy it or not.
Having said that, I began HEARTLANDS with no real expectations beyond what the description outlined. So of course I was surprised by the mediocre reviews of the book when I found it completely intriguing and compelling! So much so that I read it in two sittings, reading over 70% of the book right through to the end and staying up till almost 3am just to finish it! For me, this is a fantastic start to what I envision to be a promising series and I look forward to reading more of Jessie Blake in the near future.
HEARTLANDS begins some 20 years prior with the horrific rape and murder of local teenage girl, Sophie Nicoll, for which two boys of the same age were convicted. The detail of the crime through the eyes of these boys is both graphic and intense while at the same time terrifying for the girl. Although the POV is from that of the boys' you can still feel Sophie's terror at the same time.
Fast forward some 20 years and the disappearance of another teenage girl of similar age and appearance in Iverlochty in Perthshire, Scotland sends alarm bells ringing. But what does Shannon Ross' disappearance have to do with Sophie's murder in the North East of England two decades before? Are the cases somehow related?
These are questions the reader asks themselves throughout while Jessie Blake, newly promoted Detective Inspector transferred to Perthshire from London, and her partner DC Dylan Logan are not privy to this fact until nearer the end. But that doesn't stop us, the readers, from wondering and trying to find a link. While we get bits and pieces of the puzzle before the detectives, we are no nearer to piecing them together to form the bigger picture any quicker either. But don't let that deter you. There is a lot to sink you teeth into in this book.
To start with, HEARTLANDS is told in dual timelines from the previous crime to the present one, and from various perspectives. While none of it is in the first person, the third person POV enables us to be privy from just about everyone's perspectives and little pieces of their secrets. But how do we put them all together to make sense of the bigger picture? Honestly? I didn't care. I just enjoyed the ride just to see how it came to an end. I have always enjoyed dual timelines as they give us a wider perspective and this one was a whole lot wider with a completely different story unfolding in the first instance to the one coming to light in the present day.
Some have said there are too many characters with too many subplots to make sense of it all. But I disagree. Yes, there were a lot of characters but that was because there were two separate stories unfolding throughout. I do agree that some characters didn't seem to have a real purpose and just suddenly disappeared without any real reason from the story while I felt they could have been built on a little more, particularly as two that come to mind specifically for me from both timelines had such an impact on two separate characters that they deserved a little more time spent on and with them in those cases. One character seemed to be integral to the story at one point and then suddenly was gone! It all seemed a bit, well, sudden. Some aspects of the present day story did seem a little convoluted which could have been smoothed out a little better. However, having said that, at no point was I confused with who was who and with what fitted where. I was completely immersed within both stories as I watched each of them unfold and finally merge.
The main characters in HEARTLANDS, aside from Jessie and Dylan, were Rob and Cassie and Louise and Jason. Both couples were well rounded in the sense that the reader really gets to know them as well as empathise with them. As their stories centre around Shannon's disappearance we really see the core of each of them, though some more than others. The other central characters at the periphery of the story is Eric (Shannon's best friend), Ben (Shannon's uncle and Louise's brother) and Andrew Foster (a schizophrenic man Shannon looks out for while her uncle Ben and his friends ridicule him). Other periphery charcters are Blair Crawford (the journalist who covered Sophie's murder) and Tom Nicoll (Sophie's older brother) - both who have their place in the story. I would have liked to have seen a little more of Eric considering he was Shannon's best friend, and as best friends go they are normally the key to every teenage girl's secrets and the heart of their story. I did think Blair Crawford was a little redundant in the present day storyline as he didn't really do anything. And what was the note that was pushed under his door that he silently thanked Tom Nicoll for? We never really saw that play out.
The characters in the Daniel Simpson storyline in the aftermath of Sophie's murder were also well rounded, apart from the support worker Gail Robertson. I felt as she'd had such an impact on Daniel that she should have had a little more depth because by the next chapter in that storyline she'd suddenly departed. The fact that her departure had had such an impact on Daniel that he responded in such a negative way meant that her presence in his life had meant something to him. While his psychologist and social worker both were present through most of his storyline, I felt Gail should have had a bigger part to play also. Her sudden departure explained in a subplot kind of way just felt a little too dismissive of her importance to him.
As for Jessie Blake - I like her. Though we have only just scratched the surface with her backstory still lurking, I quite enjoyed the time I spent with her and Dylan, whom I also liked. I hope to see them both paired up again in future cases despite them both being in different parts of Perthshire. Yes, I would have loved to know more about Jessie although the focus here was mainly on the case at hand. But we did get little snippets sprinkled throughout the book to whet our appetites. And we were given that cliffhanger at the end in case we needed more. But so far, all we know about Jessie is that she moved to Perthshire from London to escape a past and a secret; that she was married, her husband's name was Dan and he went to prison; that she had a son; that she has an old friend called Carol who was constantly texting; she has a sister called Freya, a mother called Moira, a neighbour called Dave and a Russian Blue cat named Smokey. That... and now she lives in fear of Dan finding her. Anything beyond that, we'll have to wait for the next book!
I have to mention that I really liked the fact that Shannon was a well-liked kind-hearted girl. She was not the town bitch that got what she deserved, as the case is with many victims of these types of books. She really was just a lovely girl.
HEARTLANDS isn't the type of thriller you'd expect. It's not edge-of-your-seat but it is intriguing and it is compelling. It's a police procedural with a difference. The setting in the Scottish highlands of Perthshire gives it a different edge. I like it. When the killer is revealed it's unexpected but not a shocking twist. This book was much more than that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this gripping thriller with a difference.
I would like to thank #KerryWatts, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for this deliciously disturbing ARC of #Heartlands in exchange for an honest review.
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