Locked In: Kerry Wilkinson

This is a police procedural, set in Manchester, England, the first in a series featuring recently promoted Detective Sergeant Jessica Daniels. Jessica is a nice, normal person, living with a roommate she is fond of. In fact all the members of the police force in this book are human, believable, not grand-standers and none have the personality flaws that are often associated with fictional detectives.  The only damaged cop seems to be Jessica's ex-partner who is retired after being attacked in a bar.

The story begins as Jessica is called to house where a woman has been killed. How the killer gained entry to the dwelling, and exited the dwelling leaving it locked, is in question. A reporter gets a tip about the murder, publishes facts he should not know, and some suspect that Jessica is his source.

I liked this book. I plan to read more in the series. Jessica is a likable character, and I was invested in what happens to her next. The depiction of the investigation was well done; there is a lot of plodding police work and mistakes made as the search goes on and on.

However, I did have several criticisms of the story and the writing as I read it, and some of those elements might bother other readers more. Some reviewers noted that they spotted the culprit and the resolution to the locked room mystery early on; I did not, but I was bothered by too many coincidences. There were many vague references to other plot lines that were not resolved... perhaps the intention was to follow up on them in future books in the series. 

Although this mystery was flawed, it was a good first novel, and it held my interest from beginning to end. Especially at the end.

When I purchased this book, it had been a best-selling e-book on Amazon UK. Usually, I would not be attracted to a best seller.  In this case, my motivation for buying and reading the book was that the Puzzle Doctor at In Search of the Classic Mystery had enjoyed it and recommended it. Also see the positive review at Raven Crime Reads, which includes more information about the author's success. There are now seven Jessica Daniels books, with more planned; see the author's website. All the books are not available in the US.

I was impressed by the Afterword in my trade paperback edition of this book. The author tells the story of writing the book and expresses appreciation to the readers who encouraged him and bought his first book. He seems like a very nice person. Kerry Wilkinson was interviewed at the Shotsmag website. I like this quote:

I don’t believe people read long series of books - or watch a long series of something on television - because they are desperate to know what the next crime is. Why would they? They can buy any of the other thousands of crime books or watch any of the other TV shows. Or do none of that at all and play Angry Birds on their phone. I believe they come back because they’re invested in the character. It doesn’t even have to be for a positive reason – they might hate them and hope they get a comeuppance.

Caring one way or the other is important.

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Publisher: Thomas & Mercer [2013]; originally self-published 2011.
Length: 319 pages
Format: Trade paperback