With Vera saying ‘ta-ra’ to viewers of ITV’s popular series based on the novels by Ann Cleeves, perhaps there’s a vacancy for a new Northeast England-based detective? While a TV series is being made based on her DCI Kate Daniels books, former probation officer Mari Hannah brings us Her Sister’s Killer – a fifth outing for Frankie Oliver and David Stone. Inside, the author gives Frankie her most difficult challenge yet in a story that brings us, and the author, much closer to the character.
As a newly promoted inspector, Frankie has to leave the job she loves in the Murder Investigation Team – MIT – to take over a rural station in Northumberland. It’s her first posting as a team leader in charge of an area, along with all the crimes that go on there, petty and serious. Soon she is tied up in the ramifications of a nasty road traffic accident which becomes a thread in the novel.
All the while she has to get to know her officers, the lie of the land and the local troublemakers. It’s a steep learning curve but that’s promotion for you.
Those challenges are nothing compared to the devastation of the past, which is about to burst back into her life. Frankie has spent all her adult years under the shadow of her sister’s murder in 1992. She is haunted by the desire to get justice for Joanna and thwarted in her dreams of catching her killer – a trail that ran cold even before she became a cop. However, it’s what drove her to become a police officer and to want to help victims and survivors of traumatic crime.
In 2019, nearly three decades later, a chance remark at a party leads to new evidence coming to light on that cold case. Her MIT boss, DCI David Stone, picks up on it and decides to investigate behind Frankie’s back, sparing her the grief if it all comes to nothing. Plus, he doesn’t want to distract her from her duties and the difficulties she faces adapting to new job.
The problem is that when Frankie gets wind something is up and people are keeping things from her, it leads to misunderstandings. Frankie feels isolated and this drives a wedge between her and David at a time when she needs his support.
If it leads anywhere, this could finally give Frankie the answers she’s been searching for, for so long. Only she might not like what she finds out about the betrayals of the past. The big question is: if Frankie finds out who killed Joanna, will it bring her peace?
As a former probation officer with an ex-detective partner Hannah paints a rich portrait of police life, clever little details of the team working together that feel like authentic procedure, and she certainly knows her parish, the Northeast. Yet, that’s secondary to the real strength of Hannah’s novel, which is how personal it feels. We are there with Frankie all the way.
In all the years of meeting people in the worst circumstances, at their low points, the author has a wealth of understanding of how we tick under pressure, when in pain. It’s the compassion and empathy for ordinary human frailty that make this story so poignant and so clearly grounded in real life. From the heart-tugging opening scene it’s there throughout the novel. So this is character-driven as all really good police procedurals are.
For similar passion and authenticity try Graham Bartlett’s Force of Hate or for a similar sense of empathy Trevor Wood’s The Silent Killer.
Orion Publishing
Print/Kindle/iBook
£5.49
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
