Eleven-year-old Jack Bright’s life turns when his mother’s car breaks down on a west country motorway. She leaves Jack and his two younger sisters in the car while she goes in search of the nearest emergency phone. She never returns, at least alive. Jack’s dad cannot cope and leaves home. Jack is now in charge, he keeps their parentless status a secret, manages to put food on the table, by burglary.
Catherine While’s life is due to change as the end of her pregnancy nears. Husband, Adam, is over the moon but somewhat over-solicitous. He travels for his job, so Catherine is used to being home alone. It doesn’t bother her – until a serial intruder starts to leave her cryptic messages. She doesn’t phone the police or tell Adam for fear of him becoming even more protective.
DI John Marvel is new to the west country. He’s a Londoner but has been shipped out to Somerset from the Met after a botched case. His interest is in solving murders, but they are fewer and further between out here in the sticks. Instead he is handed the ‘Goldilocks’ burglaries case, so called because the perpetrator tends to steal food and sleep in empty beds before trashing the joint.
It's all connected of course, but very cleverly with sufficient side plots to distract from and obscure the outcome. The writing is pacy with wry observations, and the characters stand out, even the minor ones such as Jack’s sisters and Marvels’ colleagues.
It is nicely
entertaining. Bauer comes (as she often does) at the crime novel from an
unusual angle, avoiding the stereotyping that prevails in most of the genre.
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