He’ll have persuaded himself that what he’s doing is somehow okay, just as those kids will have persuaded themselves there’s nothing really wrong with taking drugs. People are very quick to persuade themselves that something illegal really ought not to be and therefore it’s okay to do it. You must see it often. The illusion of victimless crime.

 

Miranda’s nerves tautened, as if they were the strings on a violin and a violinist was pulling then ever tighter, the pitch increasing. Any minute now and they’d start screeching, like the background music in Psycho.

 

No one went upstairs in his cottage. The dust would be as thick as March snow up there, and after he’d gone whoever came to clean up would be able to roll it up like a mat and throw it away.

 

Doing the right thing always did lose you friends. The more Jude saw it happen, the more he wondered why anyone bothered.

 

 My Review:

 

 I am relatively new to this genre so Jo Allen is a recent discovery and new favorite. I have enjoyed this smartly written and complex series and continue to look forward to the next. The characters’ personal lives and personalities are as intriguing as the criminal cases they are laboring to solve.  This case was another cleverly plotted head-scratcher laced with insightful observations and quirky secondary characters, and more of what I’ve come to expect from this crafty scribe.