Book review: Thrilling crime secrets to be unlocked

Jane Casey's 'The Secret Room' is a fast-paced thriller with realistic police drama, plausible twists, and great characters

Jane Casey’s new installment builds upon a solid crime series.

• The Secret Room 
• Jane Casey
• Hemlock Press, €13.99

Jane Casey has firmly established herself as one of the greats in the realm of crime fiction with 15 tense and twisty novels under her belt. 

Her loyal fans, however, are probably most familiar with her Maeve Kerrigan series and will undoubtedly be lining up outside the bookstore for the release of the latest instalment: The Secret Room.

Returning favourites DS Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent are tasked with solving their most difficult crime yet — the murder of a wealthy woman in a London hotel room. 

Mrs Ilaria Cavendish books the same room in the luxury hotel every Wednesday afternoon to sneakily meet her lover. 

After checking in under an alias and ordering champagne, her lover Sam Blundell arrives on schedule. 

Just nine minutes later, with his hands scalded, he frantically runs out of the room calling for help.

The sight that greets the police shocks even the most experienced of detectives, specifically Maeve Kerrigan. 

Ilaria, her body battered and bruised, lies in a bathtub filled with boiling hot water. 

The case soon turns into a high-stakes mystery as CCTV footage reveals that no one enters the hotel room with her and nobody leaves — aside from an innocent room service visit to deliver champagne.

“But everyone who watches from the beginning — from the first moment that she steps into view, striding past the doorman as if he doesn’t exist — will have to fight the strange, pointless urge to warn her, to call her away from the lift, to usher her out of the hotel and onto the street, to slip her back into her life again, as if there might still be a chance that someone could stop her from hurrying towards her death.”

Maeve and Josh decide that Sam, the obvious main suspect who has secrets of his own, did not have time to stage the deliberately brutal crime, which leaves them with no leads. 

The case is further tangled up by Maeve and Josh’s longstanding complicated relationship — a perpetual case of will they, won’t they — that fills every room they enter with frosty silence. 

Even after attempting to see other people, Maeve still finds herself constantly thinking of her old mentor-turned-partner and she soon realises that trying to deduce her own feelings might be the biggest mystery of all.

Despite their complex dynamic, Maeve remains determined to support Josh as his relationship with his girlfriend Melissa turns rocky after her young son Thomas begins to grow ill. 

However, it is not long before everything Maeve thought she knew about the detective is flipped on its head as Josh gets arrested for a crime he insists he did not commit, leaving Maeve to solve the impossible murder case of Ilaria on her own.

With realistic police drama — including an unflinching and unbiased look at London’s Met — plausible twists, and great characters, the book hinges on the difficult question: How far would you truly go for someone you love?

“I don’t know everything about their relationship, but I know she loves him. If it’s true that he hurt her, then I don’t know him and if I don’t know him, I don’t know anyone.”

The Secret Room is a fast-paced, thrilling read perfect for crime enthusiasts. 

While long-term fans will benefit from knowing the ins and outs of Maeve and Josh’s relationship, new readers can also delve into this installment and treat it as a standalone — though they may find themselves rushing back to explore the rest of Casey’s enthralling catalogue.

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