In some ways this story reminds me of a couple of other books I had read before, which meant I had a fair idea of which direction the author was going to take the story, and a pretty good idea of who was behind the murders relatively early on. He is undoubtedly a cold blooded killer, but for the most part, there is a clinical nature to his behaviour which is almost understandable, if not forgivable.
He is definitely a character to be wary of, although there is also an almost sympathetic edge to the way in which he is portrayed. You can see the impact of his nature in the very early scenes in which we meet him, in the trust in which he is held in spite of his crimes and it is that which twists, grows and informs the direction of the story. Henley’s greatest fear is in facing her attacker, the eponymous Jigsaw Killer, Peter Olivier, a character who is that special blend of charming and sinister. The perpetrator of those heinous crimes is behind bars, so it becomes a question of whether this could be a copycat or an accomplice. This case is a complex and twisted one, with clear links to Henley’s last case but seemingly no logical way in which it can be. She’s an intriguing and authentically flawed character who I’m certainly looking forward to hearing more from. She makes mistakes, she is aware of her failings, but she is drive by a sense of justice. It is well balanced, a keen observation of how Henley is perceived and treated by people both as a woman and as a black officer, but it does not overly define her or the story.
She is both tough and vulnerable, and as a black officer in the police, someone who is faced with a certain kind of prejudice. Now this is one hell of a case to break her back into active duty as SIO, and one which triggers unwelcome memories bearing all the hallmarks of the case that nearly broke her. The book introduces readers to DI Anjelica Henley who has been on desk duties since she was viciously attacked whilst apprehending a suspect. But it is thrilling and it is engrossing and this was a book that had me completely sucked in from the very beginning. Nothing in this book is unnecessarily gratuitous, with few exceptions we meet the victims after the fact, but the manner of death is without doubt macabre, and the implications of what is discovered by the police, somewhat unsettling. If you like your serial killer thrillers a little on the gruesome side, then The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson may be just what you are looking for.
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