Book Review:The Great Divide by L.J.M Owen

This novel should come with a warning ‘don’t pick up to read a couple of chapters before bed’ 189 pages later and at 12.30am I had to force myself to put it down

***note, I ended up finishing this at 2am because I stupidly thought I could read just one more chapter 🤣🤣🤣🤣

As you can guess, I thought this was a brilliant read. The writing and characters drew me in and kept me reading, determined to find out who was behind the crime and the mysteries and why.

I really liked Detective Jake Hunter who has transferred to Tasmania from the mainland because of some personal issue that he is running from which we slowly uncover as the story progresses. He was a smart guy and liked to do things by the book at the same time as trying to fit in with his new colleagues and the new community.

The original crime, the murder of an old lady, Ava O’Brien who ran a home for orphan girls or ‘the bad girls home’ as it is widly known in the community, is by far the least of the crimes that have been committed. As Jake starts to delve into the background of Ava O’Brien he begins to uncover some seriously disturbing finds to do with the home and the young girls who lived there.

A couple of the girls from the home still live in the village, one suffering from mental health issues. as their stories are uncovered and truths are brought out into the open during Jake’s hunt for the murderer, I found it hard to understand how people could do the things they did to these girls.

Jake has to deal with a pretty incompetent Constable Murphy and a Sergeant who doesn’t play completely by the rules and seems to undermine his investigation whenever he can. Jake doesn’t give up though and I really enjoyed the way he followed each lead whereever it went, determined to uncover the truth. I liked Dr Meena Gill who was extremely switched on and worked well with Jake.

This was a great murder mystery novel and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series, well, I hope there is to be a next book, the epilogue certainly left it open for one.

Another novel set in Tasmania that I’ve read this year, I must get there one day, mind you with the amount of crime that seems to happen there, I’m not sure if it’s safe to do so.