The Binding Room

Sweet mother of pearl, WHAT A RIDE.

The Binding Room is a dark, twisty, compelling police procedural, the second in Nadine Matheson's Inspector Anjelica Henley series. I haven't read the first, but I don't feel like my reading of this one suffered for it.

DI Anjelica Henley has a lot on her plate. She's dealing with the loss of a loved one, the fallout from an affair with her superior, and PTSD from her near-death experience at the hands of a suspect on a previous investigation. But all that has to take a back seat when a young woman goes to her job cleaning a church and finds the pastor, ostensibly a respected pillar of the community, brutally murdered. The SCU is called in to investigate. But when another person is found bound and clearly subjected to torture in a hidden room of the church, the SCU must also consider whether the pastor was victimizer as well as victim.

First, let me say that this isn't a book for the faint of heart. It deals with some fairly gory descriptions of injuries, and it covers the topics of abuse and mental health in a way that might be unsettling or upsetting for some. It also portrays an ostensibly Christian church in a less than flattering light.

But if those things don't put you off reading, this is a nail-biter of a story. This isn't just one murder, it's several, and the SCU has to figure out how they all tie together. A horrifying picture unfolds of unthinkable acts committed under the guise of exorcisms. But worse still, one of the victims had recently given birth. Where is her baby? In the hands of a killer?

Matheson's background in the criminal arena shines through. You don't write this kind of story this well without having some personal experience in the matter. With the way the SCU was written, though, as a team who have each other's backs even when they're giving each other good-natured grief, I would have pegged her for a prosecutor (I was one in a former work incarnation). She paints a thorough picture of police procedure and the criminal justice system.

The story is set in London, and there are a few terms and acronyms that might not be familiar to someone who hasn't operated within the UK legal system. I was able to gather the meaning of those from context pretty well, and the jargon didn't keep me from reading at speed and well past my bedtime.

The Binding Room is a five-star read for me. Dark, twisty, and absolutely enthralling. I look forward to reading more from Nadine Matheson!