‘Buried Secrets’ by Lisa Cutts

Published by Simon & Schuster,
2 November 2017.
ISBN: 978-1-4711-5314-3

After rushing out of his house and driving off to work, Major Crime Detective Inspector Milton Bowman from East Rise Police Station Kent, has a nasty car accident.

The task of informing Milton's wife Linda of the incident falls to an old friend of the family, Detective Inspector Harry Powell. However, when he gets to their house he is devastated to discover she has been murdered.

At first the general opinion of the police is that Milton murdered his wife and then tried to commit suicide by driving into a concrete flower bed on a roundabout. But as investigations go on it becomes more complicated, could there be someone else involved? At the same time though they do discover that Milton has a shadier side.

When they are able to identify DNA found in saliva on Linda's cheek it opens up a whole new can of worms. So many people are not as they seem, and this includes Linda.

The murder weapon is then discovered in a front garden, so the hunt goes on as to who it belongs to. Then two sets of fingerprints are found on it, have they identified the murderer or could there even be two culprits? Also, what have a gang dealing in drugs and led by a mysterious “Tandy” have to do with the plot?

More and more characters come under suspicion including Harry. He has to be suspended from his job as he found the body and is such a close friend of the family. A Detective Constable Hazel Hamilton from the same police station befriends Harry and keeps him in the picture to a certain extent although she really is not allowed. Could he have anything to do with Linda's murder? Surely not as he was really fond of her.

Hazel acts as liaison officer to Travis, Linda and Milton's son, even he and his friend Aiden and his family come under suspicion. He tells Hazel that he and his friend had bets as to who could sleep with each other’s mothers first! The more complicated it gets the more frustrated everyone gets. Will they ever untangle all the threads correctly?

A really good read full of doubtful characters, many with dodgy pasts they have been trying to cover up. I see Lisa Cutts has had twenty-one years’ experience of police work. It is no small wonder then that the plot is so convincing, and the characters come to life.  Highly recommended.

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Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Lisa Cutts is the daughter of a former Metropolitan police officer and obtained her first degree in Law, working in a number of jobs in London and around the South East area, before becoming a police officer herself in 1996. She later achieved a second degree in Applied Criminal Investigation. She lives in Kent, where she balances working full-time for Kent Police with writing crime fiction. An extract from Never Forget (now optioned for a major TV drama) won the Writer’s Retreat Competition in 2012. Remember, Remember is the second book in the DC Nina Foster series.

www.lisacutts.co.uk

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.