Ask Me No Questions (DS Kate Munro #1) by Louisa de Lange
Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural, psychological thriller
Read: 6th October 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(release date: 3rd October 2019)
★★ 2 stars
Having read and enjoyed Louisa's debut thriller "The Dream Wife" earlier this year, I had high hopes for this book, being the start of a new police procedural series. I was looking forward to meeting DS Kate Munro and wondering how she was going to handle what promised to be a most puzzling case.
Set in Southampton, it begins in 2004 with the shooting murder of Robert and Madeleine Patterson by their neighbour Harrison Becker, with whom Madeleine had been having an ongoing affair. Twins Thea and Gabriella were just 18 years old, and Becker's son Harry was the girls' best friend. They had been reported as having been in the backyard enjoying the summer sunshine at the time of the murders.
Moving forward to the present day 2019 where trauma seems to follow them, Gabriella has been viciously attacked and now lays in a coma. Trying to piece together the timeframe preceding the attack, DS Kate Munro discovers Gabi had been at a local nightclub known for its questionable patronage. CCTV reveals Gabi to be undeniably drunk, stumbling away in the dark as she leaves the venue. She isn't seen again until an anonymous 999 call lead police to her battered and almost lifeless body on the common.
The first point of contact in such an event is to question any family so DS Munro calls on her twin sister Thea...who ironically lives in the very house their parents were murdered in 15 years before. The trouble is, the twins have led rather separate lives since their parents' murders and have barely spoken since. Despite this, Thea is quick to rush to Gabi's bedside to be with her sister. Shocked at what is apparently Thea's indifference towards her twin, DS Munro endeavours to find out why. But can she crack Thea's tough exterior and reveal just what it is she may be hiding? But what is Thea's secret?
The thing about Thea and Gabi is, while they are identical twins and look exactly the same, their personalities couldn't be more different. Gabi has always been popular and gregarious whilst Thea is quieter and introverted. Gabi never had a problem making friends or a lack of male attention whereas Thea lived in the shadow of her sister and was never able to attract either male or female attention. Sharing such a tragic past you'd think the twins would have grown closer and supported each other through such a tragedy but put them together and they do nothing but bicker. The one constant consistent factor they share, besides the obvious, is Harry Becker - the son of their parents' killer - and their childhood best friend. But Harry has his own secrets that he does not want revealed.
During the course of the investigation and perusing the CCTV of the area, the team discover someone stalking Gabi. The footage is too grainy for identification and in most instances the person was just a shadow. Who is this person and were they the one to attack Gabi? If not, did they see who did?
When Thea receives a knock at her door nothing could prepare her or anyone else for this person's shock arrival. Is this person the stalker?
And then Gabi wakes...throwing a whole new light on the investigation.
ASK ME NO QUESTIONS is filled with secrets, lies and deception. Normally, this would have me hanging on with baited breath but in this case I was just irritated. Kate was a DS leading an investigation and yet she made such stupid errors of judgment that would normally have someone in her position hauled up before Professional Standards. Yes, she is flawed but she was also incredibly stupid and should have known better. You don't get to be DS with the rookie mistakes she was making.
However, this IS only the first of the series, so she could well sober up and get her act together, with the promise of making a fine detective. I'm hoping Kate improves so I must reserve judgment until she has had the chance to redeem herself in future installments.
As for Thea and Gabi - those two were twisted and did my head in. Their reasoning for their actions, both past and present, did nothing to appease my view of them. Harry was only marginally better. But in their defence - they did all share a severely tragic event in their pasts that was enough to skew their perspective on the definition of right and wrong. But it doesn't excuse it. I didn't like any of them. And therefore it was difficult to enjoy the book with such incredibly hateful characters and a detective who put the entire investigation on the line with her poor decisions.
There are many twists and turns throughout ASK ME NO QUESTIONS - enough to baffle the reader and all alike - that will surely leave you asking many questions. I didn't like the ending myself, finding it all rather an anti-climax.
I must be in the minority here with this book because everyone else appears to have loved it, whereas I was disappointed. I am, however, looking forward to a follow up in this series which I hope will improve my outlook. I won't write DS Kate Munro off just yet...
I would like to thank #LouisaDeLange, #NetGalley and #Orion for an ARC of #AskMeNoQuestions in exchange for an honest review.
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