After The Fire by Jane Casey

 

When a fire breaks out in a tower block on a sink estate in London it is up to DS Maeve Kerrigan and the rest of the MIT to investigate. The investigation is extremely sensitive as one of the fatalities is a right-wing MP.

After The Fire is the sixth book in the Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey. Every time I read a book in this series I think "Wow, the best yet", and this was no exception. I raced through, desperate to find the answers to the numerous questions raised during the investigation.

The opening chapters give us a brief glimpse of some of the residents of Murchison House, one of the six tower blocks that make up the Maudling Estate. The focus is on some of the residents of floors ten and eleven as those are the floors impacted by the fire. The description paints a bleak picture. After the fire, it's the lives of these people that are focused on as the police and fire brigade try to fathom what has happened.

First and foremost is was it arson or an accident? There are no quick answers which means the police have to investigate every possibility. Given that there is a strong chance the fire was arson, the police then need to figure out who the intended target was. It was this part of the story that really drew me in. With numerous victims, the pace never let up for a moment as numerous secrets are revealed.

The team is still coming to terms with their boss not being around. DCI Burt is running the squad and this causes friction between her and DI Josh Derwent. Kerrigan seems to spend a lot of her time handling Derwent so that he doesn't go too far and jeopardise his career. I loved the description of Derwent, "the Prince of Darkness", it sums him up perfectly. There seems to be an uneasy truce between Kerrigan and Derwent as Maeve slowly realises that Josh will do anything to protect her, even though he still enjoys winding her up at every chance.

We see a much more vulnerable Kerrigan in this book as she is struggling to come to terms with a number of events from the previous book. Her relationship status is still unsure. The arson itself takes place on the Maudling Estate, a place where Maeve's personal safety was compromised, a situation which still haunts her. Added to all this is the fact her stalker is still around and seems to be able to follow her every move.

Jane Casey has managed to weave all the various plot lines together so that you are completely in the dark, unable to guess the final outcome. As everything is wrapped up we are then witness to a shocking event which leads to a terrifying situation and a fitting conclusion to one of the storylines. Needless to say, I'm already looking forward to reading the next book in the series.