First in a new series about a female Detective Sergeant with the Major Crimes Unit in Stoke-on-Trent, a smallish city in the Midlands, Hush Hush follows Grace Allendale as she transfers from Manchester to Stoke, taking a promotion and returning to her roots. She’s thrown straight in at the deep end with a series of murders connected to the criminal Steele family - who just happen to be related to Grace a lot closer than she’d like.
I’m still not sure why Grace wanted to go back to Stoke in the first place, considering what a terrible person her father was and the fact she neither knows nor particularly wants to know the Steeles. She has neither family nor good memories there. Though her wanting to leave Manchester is perfectly understandable after the loss of her husband, I just don’t get why she’d even consider Stoke. It was really never explained.
This is a long book at 400 pages and 80 (fairly short) chapters, and to be honest I thought it could have been cut by about a third and still be a good story. There was too much repetition and description which made me feel rather as though the author was trying to describe everything happening on a TV show rather than just telling the story.
The excellent show Line of Duty is name-checked in this book, and I daresay Hush Hush would make a very good TV show, but as a police procedural crime thriller it was a bit waffly and long-winded to make a great read. Three stars.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.