Shed No Tears is the third Cat Kinsella detective novel by British author Caz Frear. She has been writing a book a year since 2018. Cat is 26 years old, a London detective with ambition. This mystery starts with the discovery of an old set of bones, which gets identified as belonging to Holly Kemp, who disappeared in 2012. At the time, it was assumed that she had been killed by a serial killer, Christopher Masters, who had a pattern of killing younger women. There was eyewitness testimony of Holly going to the house of Masters. Masters occasionally hinted he was responsible for her murder. Cat and her detective partner Luigi Parnell hope to sort out the case quickly.

However, there are some discrepancies. Kemp was shot while Master killed his other victims  

They meet with the detective who was responsible for the original search for the serial killer,Tess Dyer, who caught Masters. Cat suggests that Masters may have had an accomplice. To press this implies that the original investigation was flawed. But Cat gets on well with Dyer, and admires her. 

Cat is thinking about her future, which is linked to that of her boyfriend Aidan, who works in finance. He has his own career, and although they are practically living together, they have not made any official commitment to each other. Aidan has been willing to put up with all of Cat’s cancellations of dates due to her work, but what will Cat do when Aiden asks her to make a sacrifice for his career?

Cat has her father to think about. He is getting older, and he has a new girlfriend. Cat has a difficult relationship with him because he is in the criminal world while she is in the police. She loves him but she keeps her distance because they always get into arguments and she is worried that if her boss learns about her family connection to crime, her career will be over.

The investigation into Holly Kemp’s murder goes in many different directions. We meet many characters and there are plenty of leads which don’t go anywhere. That’s what makes this a long book at 368 pages. The performance of the unabridged audiobook by Jane Collingwood helps draw the reader in. It feels a little formulaic and written with a hope of being turned into a TV series. But the characters are all flawed in interesting ways and the plot moves swiftly, so it is an entertaining read. Points to readers who can work out the solution to the murder early on. 

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.

Categories: Fiction, AudioBooks

Keywords: detective fiction