Desperate Measures

Detective Mia Harvey #1

by Patti Battison

When the body of a young girl is discovered on a landfill site, DCI Paul Wells is certain that Ian Lennox is the killer. With Lennox safely in the cells, Wells' team prepares its case, but when time runs out, they are forced to release him. Wells is desperate and his career is on the line. How can he prove that Lennox is their man? Meanwhile, a second murder causes even more problems. Is there any chance that the DCI can finally get the result for which he prays?

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 31, 2009

Reviews

[Josie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was absolutely terrible, It actually gets 0.5 stars. The one thing this book succeeded in doing was putting me to sleep. No matter when or where I was reading I ended up falling asleep every time I tried to read this stupid book and it's why it took me so damn long to finish.

The writing in this book was just bad, and also confusing. For one it was a third person POV that kept randomly switching its focus between its multitude of underdeveloped and boring characters. Secondly, the tone kept shifting between overly serious and way to detailed descriptions to crass words and weird slang. Here are some examples...
•(said by the boss policeman) "What have we got, kiddies? And don't say 'nothing Daddy'".
•"He was JUST as capable of relating disturbing information in a gentle and reasonable manner"
•"His last words hung in the air with an awesome resonance"
These are just some example of more juvenile writing pieces found in between the lengthy writing attempting to sound very mature and descriptive. I personally was disturbed that a police chief referred to his employees as his "kiddies" and to himself as "daddy" multiple times throughout the novel. It was just a weird experience.
Okay now it's time to talk about the characters. All of them were one dimensional with one main aspect that was known about them. One of the officers was seeing a prostitute, one was a try-hard, one was in the middle of a divorce, and one's mother was in a nursing home. Thats about all we know about them. There was also this weird relationship between the two main detectives where they kept switching between hating each other and uneasy peace; it was so confusing, irrational, and badly written that I had no investment in the relationship and didn't care at all. AND THE NAME OF THE MAN WITH THE HIGHEST TITLE IN THE POLICE FORCE WAS "SUPERINTENDENT SHAKESPEARE" WTF.
Moving on to the plot all I can say is... predictable and boring. The first crime and the main focus of the novel moves so slowly and I didn't care at all who the murderer was, and then about halfway through the novel I figured it out. It was too easy, the author just foreshadowed too much with way to much focus on one characters behavior. Not to mention that the ending where they caught him was completely unsatisfying and did almost nothing to help the plot, it was almost the worst part of the book. The truly worse part tho was the goddamn extra characters that were added just to create an extra crime to solve that was also completely predictable. The second grime, the murder of an older woman, was so obviously done by the person who did it that I don't know why it was included. IT ADDED ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO THE PLOT AND MADE THIS GODFORSAKEN BOOK EVEN LONGER.
I will never read a book by this author again it was so damn bad.

[Diane E]

Terrible murder

Kiddies? Daddy ? Darling ? By the DCI ? What an unprofessional group of coppers .
The murder of a young woman was terrible . She was dumped in the dump. Some good police procedural events . Lots of quibbling . Some backstabbing . Weird solution . Pretty weak story .

[Konstantina · Rating 1 out of 5]

1. Weird phrasing and poor dialogue (kiddies, daddy, etc were way too uncomfortable for me to read and connect it with the DCI, for example).
2. Unexplainable (and very unprofessional) behaviour of the main characters. Mía knows about her colleagues misbehaving (one is a repeat woman beater and the other withholds information) but she says nothing, withholding herself critical information.
3. She keeps doing that at the end to save for the second time the killer/gambler who takes care of her mother just to antagonise her boss. That part of the story is also very confusing and makes no sense. It also is distracting.

Not convinced, sorry.

[Carolyngrand · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose this due to the good ratings. Maybe it’s just not for me. I love almost all crime books, it is unbelievably rare for me to put one as DNF, but when there is a pathologist, described as “giggling wildly” and saying “ well done, give the man a lemon “ etc, no. The first few chapters were not particularly well written but I would have persevered until then - but that was the DNF point. There are many crime books, some of which include pathologists with an off beat SOH - and much better done. Maybe it gets better later on, personally I cannot be bothered to finish this.

[MRS G · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It always takes until midway through, to be able to get into all the individual characters personalities. Once you've sussed them out & they're as familiar as family members, you feel more involved. Then you're holding your breath at the intense moments, groaning out loud when they do something dangerously stupid.
I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck into the follow up book "Obsessed".

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a body is discovered on a landfill site DCI Paul Wells and his team are called in to investigate.
The crime part of the story was okay though my suspicions were raised quite early on who the guilty party was. The behaviour and dialogue of some of the police were annoying, especially the interaction between DI Ford and DS Harvey.

[Philip Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow and hard work

This book took me weeks to read because I kept falling asleep whilst reading it. Most books take me 24-48 hours to read. It was so slow, so boring in most of it.
It was such hard work to get to the end, although I read 1/4 of the book in one go to finish it.
Don't know if I'll try the next book.

[Helen A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like it

Looking forward to the next one. Story ending was not predictable...to me anyway. Detective Mia Harvey is an interesting lead character who felt real and refreshing. Too many writers make the heroine beautiful, perfect, etc.

[Maggie Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

I really enjoyed this story. The way the police interacted with each other made the story come alive.
Who murdered Hanna? Eeek! To find out you'll have to read the book to discover the huge twist that comes at the end.
Now for book 2

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desperate

I saw a few reviews that were low???? Well that's just crazy thank you very much. Personally I felt this awesome mystery deserved a 5 🌟. Being a person that reads well over 150 books a year, you can trust my judgement. Going to book 2 in the series now. 😊

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

very enjoyable

I found this story interesting it showed that police officers are human and prone to mistakes,and likes and dislikes of each other but it was very factual and excellently written I had trouble putting the book down ,well written Patti

[Sally J Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Desperate

This was a different kind of thriller for me. The story moves along well. The ending was surprising. I would never have suspected who the killer was. A very good read.

[H R Gifford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and good characters, but something about the story felt underdeveloped, I wanted to be more involved in the relationships. I'm reading book 2 to find it!

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Predictable. Got the killer very early on. Clunky dialogue and unbelievable relationships. Will not bother reading this author again.

[Anna]

This is not a genre I often read. I found it to be a good not too complicated story with a rather sudden but not entirely unexpected twist at the end.

[Tamara Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had me from start to finish. Well written. Looking forward to read more of the series

[Cheryl Landmark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 2.5 Stars

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read, especially for those who can binge a book in a day. I really enjoyed the toxic work relationships, and the fact that the main character DS Mia Harvey was driven by emotions which got her into trouble- she made mistakes and I couldn't always trust her judgement. This book took us through an investigation from start to finish and I loved it. I felt like the ending was a bit rushed, the "twist" didn't have the oomf I've experienced in other books but overall I enjoyed this book. It was a cozy who dunnit 4/5

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book, the first in the series. We have two murders, both females, the first is a young woman, the second, an elderly lady; mother of Janet who is in charge of the nursing home where DS Harvey's own mother resides. Is there any connection to the two killings? I think it has a great storyline and mix of characters, some grew on me, others not so much but all believable. Lots of red herrings and such a shock at the end! I highly recommend. Thank you

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good mystery

There are some interesting characters in this book. The main character, DS Mia Harvey, seems to be the best detective in the station but everyone is against and continuously putting her down. That was a bit off-putting. But the mysteries are good. Again, it seemed like bad language was just thrown in. I hope someday authors will realize that it’s not needed.

[Dorothy Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense and interesting

From the first page to the last you are in for a great mystery. Well written with believable characters and plots. Would recommend this for anyone who loves a good mystery.

[valerie gosling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

Book started off at a slow pace,as you got to know all the characters,then it picked up pace smashing read