Book Review: Before It’s Too Late by Jane Isaac

With the third book in the DI Will Jackman series out in May, I thought it’s time I got caught up with this series.

From the back cover:

Following an argument with her British boyfriend, Chinese student Min Li is abducted whilst walking the dark streets of picturesque Stratford-upon-Avon alone.

Trapped in a dark pit, Min is at the mercy of her captor. Detective Inspector Will Jackman is tasked with solving the case and in his search for answers discovers that the truth is buried deeper than he ever expected.

But, as another student vanishes and Min grows ever weaker, time is running out. Can Jackman track down the kidnapper, before it’s too late?

My Thoughts:

Before It’s Too Late is a nice cut and dry police procedural, a good start to a new [to me] crime series. Although the plot wasn’t particularly thrilling, this was still a quick read and I flew through its pages as I would an action-thriller. The plot isn’t graphic or too sinister in its nature, and I would describe it as a light-hearted police procedural, more mystery than thriller.

I didn’t feel as connected to the main protagonist, Will Jackman, as I’d have liked, but I did appreciate his character’s backstory; I don’t know how many times I’ve spoken about flawed characters, haunted by their past, but it’s something I look for and love in a novel. Jackman is that character but I didn’t feel this theme ran as deep as I’ve seen in other books.

I’m finding this one hard to review as I don’t want to elaborate on the book’s description as I felt the plot was a simple one and to elaborate any further would spoil the read. If you tend to read a lot of crime fiction, particularly police procedurals, you may find this one simplistic and missing the darker themes that are usually present, however, if you are new to the genre or tend to avoid books of a darker, more brutal nature, you may really enjoy this one.

To adequately describe my feelings towards this book, I’d say it was okay, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it, something was just missing for me. Saying that, I do plan to continue this series as I’d like to see how the author develops the character of Jackman and it being a quick read, I certainly don’t feel like my time was wasted reading it. As someone who lives and breathes crime fiction, I set the bar extremely high so this is by no means a bad book. It was initially the second book in this series, ‘Beneath the Ashes’, that caught my attention but as someone who likes to begin series at book one, this was almost an obligatory read so I’m taking this as an introduction to the series and looking forward to seeing what book two brings.

This book is available to buy now from: Amazon UK / Book Depository