Buried Deep (DS Megan Thomas #1) by Susan Wilkins
Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural
Read: 1st August 2020
Published: 6th April 2020
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Megan has to climb round and step across the body to get a proper view. What’s left is like a chalk white mask in the rough shape of a face. The innocence is still there, and a hint of the cheekiness. But perhaps she is imagining that.
Detective Megan Thomas moved to Devon for a fresh start, after years spent undercover. She’s staying with her sister and swimming in the sea daily, battling the tides and letting the waves wash her past away. But she can’t outrun everything.
On her first day back, she’s called to a murder. The body lies deep in an underground bunker, and when Megan forces herself to look, it triggers a panic attack. As her heart races and her breathing stalls, she realises she’s not sure if she can go back to life in a regular crime unit. Her memories are too powerful to be buried – maybe too powerful to let her do her job.
But when another body is found on the stretch of beach where she swims every day, Megan remembers why she joined the force, and what she’s fighting for. The victim came to the police for help, and Megan knows they failed her. She won’t rest until she gets answers. But how can she find justice for others, when she’s no longer sure of herself?
A completely gripping new series from bestselling author Susan Wilkins, introducing the tough and determined Detective Megan Thomas. For fans of Ann Cleeves, LJ Ross and Mari Hannah, this will keep you hooked from the first page to the last.
MY REVIEW:
There's nothing worse than coming into a series partway and feeling as though you have missed something. However, I am lucky enough to catch the new DS Megan Thomas series by Susan Wilkins from the beginning with the first book BURIED DEEP (previously titled "Damage Done"). I wasn't sure what to expect from it going in but I found that I did indeed enjoy it.
After four harrowing years spent undercover with The Met, DS Megan Thomas transfers to the Major Crime Team in Devon, moving in with her sister and family, to begin life as normal police detective...as opposed to one that is undercover. The prologue opens with a disturbing scene that we later discover to be Megan believing that she was about to die. It is this memory that continues to haunt her now as she attempts to get on with the job and her life. But her first case is one that will bring the memory of that scene rushing back to her, leaving her wondering if she is even up to the job anymore.
A body has been discovered in a septic tank on Winterbrook Farm, a property owned by washed up actress Georgia O'Brien. Megan's boss has tasked her and a couple of new DCs to investigate but the owner, Ms O'Brien, is proving to be a difficult character with an odd powerplay between her and her so-called paid companion Shirin Khan, employed to ghost write the children's books Georgia's name is attached to. She kicks up a fuss when it is determined that the death is suspicious and she and Shirin must move out of the house for time being. But after a little tantrum, Georgia, Shirin and her little boy Noah move in with Georgia's elderly mother, also a former actress Dame Heidi (whose last name escapes me). The women put on quite an act in front of police and neither are entirely forthcoming.
When Megan first arrived on the scene and police had to ascertain if there was indeed a body in the tank, rather than call out CSI and waste their time if it wasn't, Megan decides to take a look herself. Laying on the ground and dropping her head through the narrow opening, she is greeted with the sight of rats feasting on the remains of what most definitely is a human body. This scene brings the memory of her near death experience undercover as she screams to be pulled out and thereafter goes into a full blown panic attack. She has seen plenty of dead bodies before...but the sight of those rats. And it is then that Megan wonders if she up to the job anymore.
Soon after this, 14 year old Kerry Waycott is brought to the station with her grandmother to report a rape. Kerry claims it was a stranger but refuses to be co-operative. Megan's attention becomes focused on Kerry's case rather than the suspicious death her boss has tasked her with as she pays a visit to Kerry at home and questions her more informally. Kerry gives her a name, but something still doesn't seem right. Is she just attention-seeking, as the school is claiming, or is she a genuine victim?
Then Kerry's only friend turns against her and begins slut-shaming her on social media, Kerry sees no alternative. When a call comes in of a young girl about to throw herself off a cliff, Megan jumps into action and talks her down. She is sure now, more than ever, that something did happen to Kerry...even if she isn't telling her the whole truth. Megan seeks to uncover the truth, but her boss has pulled her off the rape case and tasked her with the suspicious death and a suspected case of cuckooing.
Within days Megan has faced a dramatic clifftop rescue, a savage beating, a murder, a rape, washed up actresses and legal eagles grandstanding, a missing young boy, a teen kidnapped, a barrage of lies, coming face to face with a killer and as well as all that, facing her own demons. When the body is identified, the rapist exposed and false identities uncovered, Megan then realises she is dealing with a psychopath and draws on her experience undercover to outsmart them.
BURIED DEEP is a fast paced procedural thriller featuring everything from peer group pressure and social media to cuckooing drug dealers and murder. The short snappy chapters make for faster reading and "just one more chapter" right up to the nail-biting climax.
The narrative is in the third person mostly from Megan's perspective with the odd inclusion of other's perspectives which always keeps things interesting. I like how it is not solely a police procedural from the investigative side but also from the outside looking in of those involved in the case.
While Megan may be a little flawed, she is capable and caring and quite likable. Her camaraderie with Vish and Brittney is welcoming unlike the headbutting with her DCI, Laura Slater. I was somewhat surprised at how much I did actually enjoy this debut, as I didn't relish the inclusion of gangster underworlds in sleepy Devon. While Megan's past is paramount to her character now, I don't think it should come back to play a part and ruin what potentially is a promising new series.
BURIED DEEP is the first in the DS Megan Thomas series and I look forward to reading more in the future.
I would like to thank #SusanWilkins, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #BuriedDeep aka #DamageDone in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
After a degree in Law and a stint as a journalist, Susan embarked on a career in television drama. She has written numerous scripts for shows ranging from Casualty and Heartbeat to Coronation Street and Eastenders. She created and wrote the London-based detective drama South of the Border of which the BBC made two series.
Her gritty, Essex-based gangster trilogy features Kaz Phelps, a kick-ass heroine who takes no prisoners. THE INFORMANT, THE MOURNER and THE KILLER are all published by PanMacmillan. Described as "blazingly brilliant" (Sunday Mirror) they've been compared to Martina Cole and Kimberley Chambers.
Susan's book, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME, is a twisty psychological thriller, featuring police detective Jo Boden, an ambitious cop still grieving for a murdered sister. This is a standalone thriller for fans of Clare Mackintosh and Lisa Jewell.
For 2020 a completely gripping new series from Susan introducing the tough and determined Detective Megan Thomas. For fans of Ann Cleeves, LJ Ross and Mari Hannah, this will keep you hooked from the first page to the last. Available now for pre-order. Published in April 2020.
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