Jack-in-the-Box

LoveReading Says

Second book in the DI Lomond series, Pat Black’s Jack-in-the-Box is a first-class police procedural thriller that sees Lomond investigate a series of bafflingly gruesome murders in the Glasgow suburbs. 

When a woman’s body is found stuffed in a box in her well-secured home, Lomond comes to the conclusion that the murder was painstakingly planned: “Someone stalked this woman, sneaked in without being seen, killed her, then sneaked out again. And if they’ve done it once, they’ll probably do it again”. His hunch turns out to be right when more bodies turn up, with the murderer’s habit of folding victims into a box after defying state-of-the-art security systems to spring up from nowhere giving rise to the “Jack-in-the-Box” moniker.

As the body count rises, the investigating team fix on a common element between a disparate set of murders: “It’s like he’s the invisible man… no one saw him get in, no one saw him get out”. At the same time, DI Lomond himself feels boxed-in by a maddening case that seems all-but impossible to crack. Indeed, one of the novel’s strengths is the author’s knack for drawing readers into characters’ inner worlds. Lomond’s escalating frustrations are palpable, not least when he catches sight of his depressed demeanour in a window and makes a resolution: ‘Today was the day. Today Lomond would put it all together. He was sure of it”. 

As things turn out, it takes longer than a day to fathom an infuriating case that makes for a superbly thrilling read. Expertly-paced and jittering with tension, Jack-in-the-Box is also page-turningly entertaining.

Joanne Owen

Find This Book In