As an avid reader (several hundred books every year) I'm always looking for new authors, and decided to give Cath Staincliffe a try. I read the sample pages first, liked them a lot, and bought this book on Amazon.co.uk.Alas, I was disappointed.Some things about the book are great. The matters relating to mental illness are handled with sensitivity and authenticity. The parenting issues also feel authentic. The two cases the detective handles are interesting and I like their solutions.However... The main character is not believable as a private investigator. What private investigator goes to tail someone for a day, travelling in the same public bus, going to the same places, and does not bring along some accessories to change her appearance? This PI doesn't. Indeed, she's followed the person for a long time before it occurs to her that it would help to change her appearance, so she needs to go to a charity shop to buy a new hat. A real PA on a major tail would bring some hats and scarves and things with her.Even worse: near the end of the book, she's with friends in an isolated spot and realised that the murderer has followed her and plans to kill her. What does she do? Instead of staying with her friends, she leaves them and goes to an even more isolated spot, and then is surprised when the killer really follows her and tries to kill her. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would be that stupid. I don't doubt that some stupid people exist - but a professional private investigator? Especially someone who's currently taking self-defence classes with focus on how to avoid dangerous situations? This is simply unbelievable.While the heroine is believable as a parent, she's simply not believable as a PI.The pace is very slow for a thriller, and there is not much action. Most of the time, it's "talking heads" - people talking to other people, and nothing happens.The writing is smooth in some places and clunky in others - so clunky that I wondered if by mistake an early draft had been published instead of the final version.The punctuation is worst. Especially in dialogue section, the punctuation is so bizarre (with commas instead of full stops between sentences) that it distracted me from the story. There are also many misplaced and missing punctuation marks, for example, many sentences have no full stop at the end. This book urgently needs a good copy-editor or at least a proof-reader who is skilled with punctuation.My overall impression was that I was reading an early draft that could, with some revision and editing, be polished into a great book.
