Wednesday, December 4, 2024

The Body in the Boot

The Body in the Boot was published in 2015 and is the first book in the Mac Maguire Mysteries by Patrick Walsh. I picked it for the What's in a Name Challenge under the footwear category.

The story follows Mac Maguire who had been the head of a London Murder Squad six months before the story began. He was a policeman renowned for his skill in solving the most difficult cases. Now a private detective and, after bereavement and pain, he doubts himself and is no longer sure if he has the will or the energy to make a success of his new career. His first case comes by chance as a mother’s grief sends him into a town’s red light district to find out how her daughter died. Lo and behold after a day in the morgue the coroner discovers that the daughter is still alive but in a deep hibernation sleep. Mac soon finds himself working with a team of local police detectives who are hot on the trail of a cold-blooded serial killer. Mac has to dig deep and rediscover all his talents in order to solve the case of The Body in the Boot.

When I began reading this novel, my expectations were low but only because I have never heard of the author or the book. I was sorely wrong! The story was one of the most exciting I have read in awhile. The tension was taut with twists galore as one dead body after another kept piling up.

There are 13 installments of this series to date and I am going to read them all. Author Patrick Walsh's character Mac Maguire is based on himself. Walsh suffers from chronic back pain and he wrote this trait into his character. I, too, suffer from chronic back pain and could relate to how Mac dealt with pain on the job. He was frequently laying down for an hour just as I do. I love that this character has a mobility disability. Walsh also writes the DI Biddie O'Sullivan mystery series. He lives in Birmingham, England where Mac Maguire also resides.

5 out of 5 stars.

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