A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey
This crime book was on many ‘best of’ lists for 2024. I can see why because it has an intriguing set-up, with a well-handled police procedural plot, several potential suspects and investigative strands and, finally, a suitably satisfying denouement. There is a but though.
If you have read any of Casey’s books before you may be familiar with her key protagonist, DI Maeve Kerrigan. She has featured in several books alongside her colleague, Josh Derwent. They are both well developed, intriguing characters, serious about their job but with enough spiky bits, Derwent especially, to be engaging. There is, though, an unmistakeable attraction between them which threatens to blur the lines between the professional and personal.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that and many detective stories have incorporated these elements, successfully – Moonlighting, The Cormorant Strike books. Therefore, if you have read a Kerrigan story before and enjoyed the entwining of the murder investigation with their slightly messy love story then you’ll love this. Unfortunately, I found the emotional rollercoaster that Kerrigan endures as she is forced to constantly evaluate her feelings and behaviour towards Derwent all too much.
With that (big, for me) caveat, I’ll tell you what I did like as you may be less of a Grinch than me about this sort of thing. The central crime and its context are intriguing. The detectives are called to the London home of a wealthy, elderly couple who appear to have committed suicide. Or rather, the husband, Bruce, has smothered his dementia suffering wife and then shot himself. Except our perceptive detectives spot anomalies that contradict that version of the crime scenario. Their suspicions are also aroused by the fact that several years earlier the couple’s young daughter, Rosalie, had disappeared never to be heard of again. It was a dead end despite a huge police hunt and a great deal of press speculation because Rosalie’s mother, Helena, was a high-profile figure – the sort of media commentator who is famous for simply having strong opinions.
It seems obvious that the staged suicide murders are in some way connected with the cold case. This means that not only are they chasing a contemporary murderer but also re-investigating a disappearance that had long seemed unsolveable.
Into that mix, Casey skilfully introduces a set of well-developed characters who in some way are part of both cases – the eccentric podcaster, Tor Grant, who seems unusually obsessed with Rosalie’s disappearance; Rosalie’s two older brothers, Ivo and Magnus, diametrically different characters whose lives have been subtly affected by their sister’s loss; and a sad, superficially unpleasant, journalist whose interview with Helena provides clues about family’s life together prior to the girl’s disappearance.
In some ways, there are similar tropes in this novel to those in the excellent ‘Kala’ that I have recently reviewed. However, these are very different novels. Whilst there is some darkness in this book, it is a more traditional murder mystery. The pleasure comes from the interviews with characters where secrets slowly emerge as well as the procedural discovery of coincidences and connections. Casey does manage to include some flashback episodes to the period just before Rosalie disappeared but these tantalise rather than reveal too much. All this appealed to me, but, goodness, the ‘will they, won’t they’ central relationship got on my nerves. This book was not for me but I would read another book by Casey from this series if the blurb makes it clear that the Maeve and Josh relationship is more of a side dish than the main course.