A fresh and fascinating new voice in British crime fiction, Emmy-nominated British-Nigerian television producer Remi Kone (Killing Eve, Spooks) debuted last year with the more-than-solid Innocent Guilt, which introduced DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle, delved into dark corners of the human psyche, and forced Hutch to confront complications in her own upbringing. Now Kone returns with Just Kill, an exciting second tale in her nascent South London series, where Hutch and Randle quickly get caught up in two strange murder cases during a London heatwave. A man discovers a corpse on his downstairs sofa, ‘watching’ television. He swears he never met the deceased. Across the city, a troubled maths teacher has been murdered, and the man caught fleeing the scene is a former classmate of Hutch’s. Meanwhile Zed Okoro, a 14-year-old boy, is determined to find his missing mother, by any means necessary. Hutch is pulled from her usual Battersea base by the involvement of her former classmate in the Elephant and Castle murder, but during Just Kill she ends up travelling far further afield as she and Randle investigate a conspiracy with roots in Africa. Kone creates a propulsive tale that switches perspectives between Leah, Zed, and others. DI Hutch is an intriguing heroine; a mixed race detective who was raised by her grandmother (after her father, a policeman, went to prison for killing her adulterous mother), and is abrasive, stubborn, and struggles to trust others. The shadow of her father, Eli, looms large even as she tries to block it out; she’s tried to hide her connections to a killer, especially from her boss in London who was a colleague of Eli. Hutch must try to solve a puzzling case that stirs up her own past, while dealing with her imprisoned father and nightmares about what she may or may not have witnessed as a child. When more deaths follow, and she’s told to take leave, will she finally deal with some of her own issues, or try to keep ploughing on through? With Just Kill, Kone builds on her debut and offers another tense, fast-paced police procedural that delves into some darker corners of psychology and society, while setting up some intriguing possibilities for several characters’ futures; the ones who survive.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Just Kill. This was a tense, fast-paced read that really pulls you in with its multiple strands and keeps you trying to piece everything together. The story opens during a heatwave with an unsettling scene, a man disturbed in the night, expecting a burglary but finding something far worse. From there, we follow DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle as they’re pulled into a murder case outside their usual patch. The only suspect is someone from Leah’s past, and the fact she’ll only speak to Leah adds an immediate layer of tension and personal stakes. Running alongside that is Zed Okoro’s story. At just fourteen, his desperation to find his missing mother brings a different kind of urgency and emotional weight to the plot. His chapters added a sense of vulnerability that balanced the procedural side of the investigation quite well. What worked for me was how these threads gradually start to connect. There’s a steady build as you realise these aren’t isolated incidents but part of something much bigger, and that underlying conspiracy gives the story its momentum. The relationship between Leah and Randle also grounds it, there’s a nice balance there, and Leah in particular comes through as a strong, believable lead with just enough of her own history feeding into the case. This is a gripping and engaging thriller with a strong central character and enough twists to keep you guessing. A solid four-star read, especially if you enjoy crime fiction where multiple storylines collide and gradually reveal the bigger picture.