Overdue (McLaren Mysteries 17) by Jo A Heistand-a review

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A spate of three murders in as many months has Derbyshire’s local police and populace in near panic. And there will most likely be a fourth killing in two weeks unless something happens to stop the cycle.

Former police detective Michael McLaren is that “something” that his best mate, Jamie Kydd, is counting on to end the alarming deaths. He enlists McLaren’s help to look into the events, hoping his friend can solve what, so far, has confounded the Constabulary.

Each of the three crime scenes is the same, yet different: the same types of things but not the same specific things left with each body.

As McLaren becomes enmeshed in the hunt for the killer, his friend Melanie arrives for a planned visit. Can his days become more complicated than simultaneously playing host and unmasking a killer? They can when he’s aware that each tick of the clock brings them closer to the next planned murder. And perhaps an unplanned one…thrown in for fun.

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REVIEW:OVERDUE is the seventeenth instalment in Jo A Hiestand’s contemporary, adult McLAREN MYSTERIES series focusing on, thirty eight year old former police detective Britain’s own Michael McLaren. OVERDUE can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous instalments is revealed where necessary.

Told from omniscient third person perspective (Mike McLaren) OVERDUE follows in the wake of three unsolved murders that may or may not be connected to one another. Retired police detective Michael McLaren left the force two years earlier, after an altercation with the man in charge but Mike McLaren has continued to work behind the scenes whenever the police are struggling for information and clues. At the request of his friend and Derbyshire Constabulary police officer Jamie Kydd, Michael McLaren goes in search for the truth, a truth that is figuratively based in both fiction and fact. As Michael’s hunt brings him up close and personal with everyone involved, threats against family and friends hits too close to home.

OVERDUE is a story of mystery and suspense, vengeance and obsession, murder and retribution. Jo A Hiestand pulls the reader into a detailed and complex investigation wherein Michael McLaren must ferret out the who, how and why with only the deliberate clues the killer has left behind. The premise is intriguing and entertaining; the characters are energetic and dynamic.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy