The One that Got Away is the first of a new series by JD Kirk featuring, as its main character, Detective Heather Filson who appears in a minor role in his Jack Logan books (see a review of one of them here). The author and his books are very Scottish and this new series is set in and around Kilmarnock.
A girl has gone missing and many of the signs have a resemblance to something traumatic in Heather’s past. Heather is not popular with her bosses, she has a bit of a drink problem, she has a father with dementia and her life is not straightforward. She also finds that her enquiries have attracted the attention of the local crime boss and she is threatened by him as he wants to resolve the crime himself. Heather doesn’t have many allies, although she is helped, to a certain degree, by a teenaged girl with some useful skills and a difficult life.
The story and plotting are excellent and the author includes his usual sense of gritty realism and sarcastic humour. I would say that this book is darker and Heather more bitter than other books he has written. It is hard to like Heather, at least at first. She seems to be completely self-destructive and to take no notice of anyone. You feel throughout the book that her next action will bring serious consequences to her and the other characters. After a while I began to understand her better and to see why she acts as she does but she isn’t immediately sympathetic.
I did enjoy this book, however, although not as much as the Logan stories. I gather that Heather will be the leading character in more stories and I will certainly seek them out.
Anne Is Reading 