Shed No Tears Book Reviews

Anne's Book Rating - 4/5

I enjoyed it and found it quite a page turner. The main character was sympathetic and the various twists keep the reader guessing. My main criticism is that it took me some time to sort out who all the characters were, although this may be an intentional ploy. I also never quite got to the bottom of the back story. Was this deliberate? I would definitely recommend it, particularly as a good Christmas read.

Hawley Reviews Book Rating - 3/5

Caz Frear's book, Shed no Tears, is an important book for me, as I'm about to undertake a new role helping to run Nottinghamshire Libraries online book club and in preparation for my first time hosting it in January, I've joined the other readers in the group to read her third Kinsella novel. Although it is now sometime since I read book 2, it is good to have read this one in order, because although I haven't read the first book in the series, Caz is an author that has highly complex interwoven plots and I do feel somewhat sorry for any other readers in the group who haven't read the other two. They may struggle to get the true impact of how good a writer she is because of this. Having just read two serial killer novels in the works of Sally Rigby, I can see the advantage in taking Frear's approach over Rigby's. When finding a body in a field, Caz and her partner, Parnell, soon discover her links to a serial killer. Focusing the entire book on the one case instead of Rigby's approach of focusing on a series of bodies, allows for a more in-depth look into the victim's life than Rigby was able to do, although in fairness her novels are much shorter. The complexities of Kinsella's universe and the guilt left over from the events of previous books allow the interwoven nature of this series to become extremely complicated and during the final two hours, when you discover the solution, the similarities between what happened in earlier books and this one become apparent and when taking into account the emotions that this causes I feel so glad that I'm only attempting to write a standalone myself. Frear should get an award named after her for such a complicated series. I will really enjoy discussing this with the book group and seeing what they think. I'm definitely going to have to read the first in the series so that I can interview Caz about how this series came about and how she's managed to cope with how complex it is.

Clare's Book Rating - 3/5

As this is the third book in the series. I was confused by the back story which came through from previous 2 novels. I wondered why we suddenly called away from the crime to deal with the main detectives father had gone to hospital for example? Having got beyond trying to work out how everyone fitted in I enjoyed the story and I soon realised that everyone mentioned fitted in with the final ending. I would advise going back and reading the other 2 books in the series first.

Bookwork with a cuppa's book rating 3/5

I did enjoy reading this book, although it wasn't my usual genre as I don't read crime fiction. If I had seen this book on a shelf I would not have picked it up, so in that respect the book club offering has been a refreshing change for me. The book has a lot of dialogue and this dialogue is the means by which the twists and turns of the story unfold. It is fairly fast paced, easy to pick up and put down, not the type of book that you have to devote lots of time to. The number of characters that appear, and the fact that they are sometimes referred to by their first name and sometimes by their last, makes for a somewhat confusing read, which can be a bit frustrating. But the twists and turns of the storyline can be followed regardless and the story leaps from one possibility to the next, as facts unfold and as evidence previously taken as truth actually turns out to be a series of linked lies and deceits. I did enjoy the book, and finished it, which is always a good sign ?