Review: Ruin Beach (DI Ben Kitto, #2)

What to say about this book? The plot was interesting and the setting great. I hadn’t read about the Scilly Isles and they were a suitably moody location for a murder mystery.

But the writing of this book is woeful! The language is at best pedestrian and at worst insulting. Our main character Ben Kitto has a female friend who is is NOT having a relationship with. However, whenever Zoe appears, he refers to her “barely there” shorts, or “skintight jeans and a scarlet jumper that accentuates her curves” or as a buxom blonde at one stage. And this, written by a woman?

Some dialogue is just plain silly. At one point, Kitto suggests the victim’s boyfriend as a suspect, and his supervisor says sceptically “Is a university academic likely to commit murder?” This was said, and received, without an ounce of irony.

And then there is THE DOG. Everywhere Kitto goes, his dog Shadow goes. Every chapter involves Kitto worrying about where the dog is, who is going to look after him, and often bringing him to wherever he goes - crime scenes, suspect interviews and even wakes. It was ridiculous. If he showed this much attention to a child, you’d say he was a helicopter parent. It was unnecessary and just a little weird!

• Review
• Kate Rhodes