Death Line

Bev Morriss #7

by Maureen Carter

When a child is murdered, everyone gets a life sentence. When ten-year-old Josh Banks’s body is discovered dumped on waste ground, Detective Sergeant Bev Morriss wants justice. She’s not alone. Everyone hates child killers – even hardened criminals. Tip-offs trickle in, and the new press liaison officer has his work cut out when the squad springs a leak. Trial by redtop is the least of the cops’ worries... 7th in Maureen Carter’s Birmingham-based ‘Bev Morriss’ police procedural series.

Genres: Fiction, Crime

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 8, 2010

About the author

Former BBC Newsnight presenter Maureen has worked extensively in newspapers, radio and television. She still freelances in the business, when she's not busy novel writing. As a journalist she's worked closely with the police, covering countless crime stories, including several murders. She's also interviewed victims and seen villains sent down.

Maureen was inspired to write Working Girls by a police pilot scheme to treat younger prostitutes as victims rather than criminals.

"It set me thinking about women on the game," she says. "What made a girl risk her health, and her life, night after night? What, if any, choice did she have? I wondered: could I combine appealing characters from this largely ignored section of society with a measure of social comment and produce an engaging and entertaining crime novel?"

Reviews

[Mary Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

What started out as an excellent series has lost its umph.

Bev was a survivor, a 'tough cookie' cop with good instincts as well as a decent back story. She could engage with sex workers, old dears and the reader alike and get the job done. Today, she is a less than average cop, too engaged with her private life and beset by miseries little and large. The dialogue had been quirky but is now riddled with cliches and the altogether too frequent dropping of 'mate' at every point.

I didn't enjoy this latest offering and the finale may see me give further books a miss

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Birmingham DS Bev Morriss is a great character, cheeky, tough, loyal to a fault. This book finds her and her team investigating a child murder followed by a series of murders of men accused of, but not sufficiently punished for, killing children. It has a complex plot, Carter's typical good procedural sense, well developed relationships between the team members, good dialogue and an ending that's a shocker.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

liked it a lot. Hope the author will get back to this series some time. But this has a good ending to it if not.

[Hannelore Cheney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it, love the whole Bev Morriss series. Can't wait for #8!