Poppet

A SPOILER. One spoiler, but a major one.

This was a hard call. Remember, I don't really like crime fiction. So, out of all the crime fic I've read lately, I enjoyed this one the most, because it had slight horror elements. And the villain was a more interesting choice than the usual. I'm sorry, but in stuff I read and watch, a female villain is usually a mom, a stepmom, or not a woman at all. So I approved of the psycho abusive woman who runs an institution. And I appreciate that Ms Hayder dared tackle woman-on-man abuse, because that's a subject that just doesn't get handled very often in any form of fiction. It's almost taboo.

That said, yeah. I don't like crime fic that much. And I've never read Jack Caffery books before this one. And...I gotta confess–I didn't much care for him. Or Flea Marley. I figured there was hold-over plot from a previous book, so maybe that lack of background hampered my enjoyment. But I found the man to be rather dull. All of my enjoyment centered on AJ and the people in the institution where he works. I wish the Maude had been supernatural instead of a bad lady, but then we would have a different genre, I fear.

So, the fact that the focal character of the series was dull to me, the plot got a bit goofy at the end, and the build-up only served to goof up the ending probably means Jack and I will part ways. Amicably, sure. But I'm just not interested.