To be honest, as I sit down to write this review I’ve absolutely no idea what’s going to come out of my fingers. ‘The Cracked Mirror’ is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and it made my head spin. It’s also one of those books that is impossible to review without being extremely vague, or do the genius plot justice.

The book description mentions a mix between Agatha Christie and Michael Connelly. And at the beginning of the story that is most definitely true. Penelope Coyne, who lives in a tiny village in Scotland that seems to have some kind of murder pandemic, is very reminiscent of Miss Marple. I adored her immediately. On the other side of the world, Jonathan Hawke is an LAPD detective who is quite possibly heavily inspired by Bosch. I must admit at that point I preferred Penny’s chapters. There are often instances where American settings just don’t seem to work for me, and whenever the story was set in Los Angeles, I couldn’t wait to get back to Scotland. 

Both of these characters are investigating apparent suicides. At some point, their paths will cross and without wanting to give anything away, let’s just say things go somewhere entirely unexpectedly. That moment when I realised what was going on, my jaw dropped and I needed a moment to absorb it all. What an incredibly clever and refreshing way to tell a crime story.

‘The Cracked Mirror’ is a book you should go into knowing as little as possible. I have a feeling it is most likely a story one will either love or not, not quite a middle way. Sure, some technicalities may have gone slightly over my head but I was hugely intrigued from start to finish, probably adding many frown lines to my forehead along the way, but happy to let the author lead me wherever it was he was going with this complex tale. These two characters couldn't possibly be more different from each other, yet somehow an unlikely kind of friendship is formed. And this is done so well that ... well, I can't really say but there might have been a tiny lump in my throat at some point. 

Do yourself a favour : go in blind and keep an open mind, dear readers. And you too might find this one thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining.