Review of "The Career Killer" by Ali Gunn

Author Ali Gunn brings us the first in her DCI Mabey series, with The Career Killer, a smart detective-mystery novel. Set in London, the main character works at London Yard, where her father wrote many of the training manuals. She may be her father's daughter, but her fellow detective would have preferred her father's son to be the heir apparent to his legacy.

Newly-minted Detective Chief Inspector Elsie Maybe takes her new promotion in stride until she inherits a wonky tribe of underlings and a murder at an old church. She's not fast to gather clues, not because she's moving at half-speed due to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, but because the nature of the new string of murders has some ring of normalcy or familiarity to her, starting with a young woman in a wedding dress found in the ruins of an ancient London church.

She doesn't move like Columbo or Hercule Poirot, asking questions and sifting the carnage over in her mind. Instead, she seems to plot the next move of the killer without even admitting it to herself and uses her forensics acuity to find clues necessary to follow the killer who moves with speed and agility while being as elusive as a ghost.

The story takes us from Mabey sorting through her Murder Investigation Team 18 into the streets of London where the bodies keep popping up like tourist attractions across the countryside. At heart, DCI Mabey is a cop, first and foremost, born and bred. But she's still a woman, seeking what her victims seem to have been looking for.

The author gives some backstory on each case, the victims, and a chance to help solve the riddles, but ultimately this mystery story is tough to figure. And, our detective shows many facets of human life, struggle, and difficulty while maintaining dignity in a high-profile case. It's worth the read, but you won't finish the 446 pages in a weekend, although you may feel compelled to try.

Available now on Kindle Unlimited, the 99-cent price is quite nice for such a compelling text.