A very well written crime novel. DI Jack Kent is an excellent addition to the genre.As well as being a police officer she is a very accomplished mountain climber with tragedy in her past which still haunts her.A lot of good work has been done to provide background and to introduce some good and repeatable characters which augers well for for future books in the series. Searching for a burglar who scales high rise buildings in Birmingham Jack needs to use her connections in the Birmingham climbing community to bring the case to its conclusion. There are unfinished threads which surely will be further explored in future books. Books which I will look forward to reading. I can heartily recommend this to all readers of British crime fiction.

Detective Jack Kent & her team are just about finished with a tricky rape case where the accused is the son of a prominent politician when she gets handed a burglary case- something she thought of as a demotion. However it seems that she has been assigned to this because of her reputation as a celebrated climber. The only way the thief could have got in was from the balcony- even if it was many floors up! When a rich doctor's body is found after a robbery & a carabiner is found clipped to the balcony rail Jack believes someone is playing with them. Especially as the ill gotten gains seem to be ending up with worthy causes. Jack is a complex character. She is still mourning & racked with guilt after the death of her lover & climbing partner,( she still believes she should have been able to save her!) She does not get on with her family & still misses her climbing mad father. But she still manages to deal with her team with sympathy & consideration. She is a character I really warmed to & look forward to meeting her again. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book. I hope the next one comes along soon!

This is the first book I have read by this author. Jack Kent whilst being a Detective is also a famous mountaineer. She has never dealt with a murder case and is given a case that is baffling, someone is robbing apartments which appear not to have been broken into. Jack soon realises that access is being gained by someone scaling the outside and entering via the balcony. On one robbery the resident is at home and is found dead. Was it an accident or intended. Jack finally has her first murder case. This book is very well researched, I thought the author must be a climber herself but apparently not. The characters were all well written and the book was written in a style I like. The chapters were long but there are breaks so you can pick it up and put it down when you only have a few spare moments to read. Very enjoyable and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.