The Detective's Secret

The Detective’s Daughter, Book 3

By: Lesley Thomson

Narrated by: Paul Ansdell

Jack Harmon craves silence and a bird's-eye view. From his new home in Palmyra Tower, he can raise binoculars to watch over West London. If he watches for long enough, he will learn who has secrets. He will learn who plans to kill. But Jack does not see everything.

October 2013, the month of the great storm of St. Jude. A man dies beneath a late-night Piccadilly line train, verdict: suicide. Jack's friend Stella Darnell, the detective's daughter, suspects it could have been murder. Now Jack and Stella are stirring up the past with questions that no one wants answered - questions that lead to an unsolved case nearly 20 years old.

This is the third story in the Detective's Daughter series.

©2015 Lesley Thomson (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC

I hope this is the last one that goes back to the schooldays of the characters

The whole time I was listening, I was thinking that I would never buy another one of these because it was so annoying having to listen about a group of school kids tormenting each other. It was upsetting to have empathy for them. I realize, however, that’s a testament to the author’s (and narrator’s) skills. It was confusing keeping track of them all. I almost decided to take notes! I am going to buy the next one, hoping it will stay pretty much in the present, because these are really good stories.

Excellent Mystery that Keeps you guessing!

I loved it! Characters are examined psychologically and elicit empathy. I loved Simon from beginning to end....Little boy lost.

My Favorite of This Series So Far

Stella Darnell owns a successful cleaning service. Her deceased father was a police detective. After his death she began to look at some of the cases he was involved in but did not solve. There are also mysteries in her own life and the lives of her employees, friends and family that are incidental but important to the development of the main plot. This is not a traditional mystery or a traditional literary novel.

Sometime engine driver, sometime cleaner and Stella's friend, Jack Harmon, witnesses the death of a man beneath the wheels of a train where he is a passenger, not a driver. Stella is approached by the dead man's brother to try to find out if his brother, who owned a computer security firm was murdered. Jack meanwhile is offered the opportunity to rent an apartment in Palmyra Tower, a repurposed water tower where some years ago a man died. Stella's mother is on her way home from an extended trip to Australia, where Stella assumed she was meeting a man that her mother found on the internet. Stella is both right and wrong.

Not a fast moving story, it moves back and forth through time and honestly when I started the series I wasn't sure that I would stay with it because the characters are all off kilter and not particularly likeable and at times just plain weird. To begin with I thought they were all probably on the autism spectrum but as more is revealed about their backgrounds, it is clear that that their oddities are based not on neurological issues but on family and childhood experiences. Like an onion, it is necessary to peel off the layers to find out what is at the center of the events in this book. And Thomson does a very good job of pulling them all together.

I enjoyed this book very much and am looking forward to reading the next one that is already in my library.