Author: Charlie Cochrane
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Pages/Word Count: 298 Pages
At a Glance: Well written, well thought out, no stone left unturned—I highly recommend this book!
Reviewed By: Carrie
Blurb: Inspector Robin Bright is enjoying a quiet Saturday with his lover, Adam Matthews, when murder strikes in nearby Abbotston, and he’s called in to investigate. He hopes for a quick resolution, but as the case builds, he’s drawn into a tangled web of crimes, new and old, that threatens to ensnare him and destroy his fledgling relationship.
Adam is enjoying his final term teaching at Lindenshaw School, and is also delighted to be settling down with Robin at last. Only Robin doesn’t seem so thrilled. Then an old crush of Adam’s shows up in the murder investigation, and suddenly Adam is yet again fighting to stay out of one of Robin’s cases, to say nothing of trying to keep their relationship from falling apart.
Between murder, stabbings, robberies, and a suspect with a charming smile, the case threatens to ruin everything both Robin and Adam hold dear. What does it take to realise where your heart really lies, and can a big, black dog hold the key?
Review: So much subterfuge! So many lies! Jury of One is the second book in the Lindenshaw Mysteries series; it follows The Best Corpse for the Job. These books are about Inspector Robin Bright, of the Stanebridge Police Department. The cast of main characters is rounded out with Anderson, Robin’s partner on the force and Adam, Robin’s partner at home. Robin and Adam meet in the first book of the series, but their relationship really doesn’t get off the ground until the end of that book—this book is set a short year later. The two men are still very new with each other, and with what each expects from their relationship. Be warned, however, this is not a romance book. Adam and Robin’s relationship is touched on because it is part of the mystery and rounds out the characters, but it is not the focus of the book. The mystery is. We could not, however, have a clear picture of Robin if we did not have Adam. There is also a cast of secondary characters that totally hold their own in the story and are exceptionally well written.
So, the mystery… It’s a mystery! Haha! Thing is, the red herrings have red herrings in this book. It is a complicated storyline, from beginning to end, and you are left wondering and reading to try to make sense of it all—and doesn’t that make a good murder mystery novel? You will not be able to guess the ending. I promise that nothing is straight forward in this book.
Robin pulled a face. “It’s like straws in a haystack. Perhaps somebody Edwards upset in prison, somebody who doesn’t like his business dealings, somebody who thinks he did in Hatton and is getting their own back. There are far too many threads in this case—these cases—and none of them are tying up anywhere. Who knows which will be the one that gets pulled and unravels the whole tapestry?”
I have to admit that while I love reading books written with British slang, it may have gotten a little overwhelming in this book. It was a little hard to follow the plot sometimes when I was trying to figure out what the characters were saying. But that is nitpicking when, overall, I really enjoyed this book as much as the first book in the series and can’t wait to see what crime Robin has to solve next time. Also, be aware these books are not about the flash bang of a CSI novel; they are full of solid police work and logical inferences, puzzles and pieces. This is what sets Charlie Cochrane apart from other mystery writers. It is the well written, well thought out, no stone left unturned storyline that leaves you satisfied in the end. I highly recommend this book!
You can buy Jury of One here:
The Novel Approach Reviews 
Leave a Reply