The Jigsaw Man is a crime thriller by Nadine Matheson and the first in a series featuring her detective Anjelica Henley. It’s not a very gory story but it does contain scenes describing dismembered bodies so it’s maybe not for the most sensitive readers.
Anjelica has returned to the Serious Crimes department in London following a period off work, mainly because of injuries received by a serial killer, Peter Olivier, who she was responsible for catching. Now parts of a dismembered body are found in various places but mostly by the banks of the Thames and it looks like her old adversary is responsible, except that he is safely incarcerated. Is this a copycat ? Could Olivier actually be innocent ? Did this person work in partnership with Olivier ? As the bodies mount up the squad has to find the answers to these questions quickly.
There are lots of sub-plots involving Anjelica and her colleagues and the book is full of action. I enjoyed it as it’s a fast-paced novel full of action. Anjelica is a Black officer and that plays a small part in the story but isn’t the main focus. The story is set in and around Deptford and it’s nice for a book set in London not to focus on the posh bits ! My only complaint is that we don’t get a lot of details of the previous crimes but the writing appears to indicate that we should know what happened – I had to check that this really is the first in the series.
This is a good read and looks like the start of an excellent series – I already have the next one ready to start.
Anne Is Reading 