Just Desserts? : The Killing Song By Lesley McEvoy

This is the second in the Dr Jo McCready series and it cements the leading character as a force to be reckoned with. A Forensic Psychologist offers the police invaluable help in identifying and catching killers. Jo McCready is better than most; she has a particular talent - she can study people, yes, but she takes it so much further. She can see what the murderers see. Visiting a crime scene she can think as they do, immersing herself in the mind of the protagonist, and by concentrating on the tiniest of details, she is able to infer mood and motivation. Sometimes she thinks it’s not a blessing but a curse despite her old teacher telling her that “they can’t hide from you…you see them and you use that to balance the scales.” But it comes at a price.

Still struggling both physically and mentally from the aftermath of a previous case, Jo is called by Charles Fielding to help with the cold case investigation into the brutal murder of his son. He thinks it was dismissed too quickly at the time, as a homosexual hate crime. Although Charles Fielding appears cold and certainly persistent, Jo feels for his wife, Mary, who, as Leo’s mother, needs closure. She assesses the evidence and is quietly confident that the police got it wrong; ‘It was the roses’ which gave the game away. At the same time, a psychopathic killer whom Jo helped avoid a murder charge, is about to be released from prison. Jo insists Dominique has become a friend which does not please those closest to her who fear for her safety. The father of Nique’s victim has already made death threats and, intent on helping her friend, Jo chooses to enter a dark and dangerous world – not realising just how dark and how dangerous it will be.

Jo is invited to offer an opinion on two other apparently unrelated murders: one, seemingly racially motivated, on a train station; the other, the strangulation of the mistress of a controversial billionaire, in the bedroom of her upmarket apartment. These apparently disparate murders turn out to be rather more than they seem, and as she studies the evidence presented, it is Jo who makes the connection. Someone is playing mind games with deadly consequences, so it seems right that a psychotherapist is the one to unravel the complex knot of intrigue.

With a quickening pace, McEvoy skilfully pulls together a number of seemingly unconnected plots into a cohesive and compelling storyline which leads to an exciting climax and emotional showdown. The complex denouement is, in part, unexpected; the characters were all involved in one way or another but predicting how was not as easy as you first thought and by the end, there is a sense of justice having been served, thankfully.

Although this can be read as a standalone novel, Jo’s assistant, Jen, and Callum, the policeman with whom she teeters on the edge of a relationship, both make a reappearance (as does Harvey, her golden boxer dog). Jen and Callum do their best to nag, cajole and protect her but Jo is not entirely honest with them, knowing that if she was, they would probably refuse to ever let her leave home.

Once more, McEvoy offers intriguing insights into the workings of the mind, and what body language, even just the flick of the eyes, may reveal about the subject under scrutiny. Her experience as a behavioural analyst, profiler and psychotherapist means she writes with confidence and self-assurance. In The Killing Song, she considers wealth and the abuse of power it offers to people who come to believe they are above the law. If danger looms, they know that the artful use of expensive lawyers will protect them, or if not, that they can afford to pay whatever it takes to get rid of a problem. Then there’s the arrogance of those who think they can use people like puppets, bend mind and body to their will and cast them aside without a second glance when the game is over. Never, however, underestimate the power of a mother’s love, or the lines they will be prepared to cross in order to protect their young. Living with guilty secrets is a price worth paying.