I need to talk about Maeve Kerrigan - includes The Secret Room[SPOILERS] *Title edited by MNHQ*

[Zitouna]

Following recommendations from on here I’ve just read the whole Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey over the Christmas holidays, and need to talk about my latest obsession!

has anyone else read them all? Happy to try and discuss without spoilers if people haven’t. They are basically brilliant police procedurals with a lot of character-driven background stuff - there are 10 main books, plus a few shorter spin offs set in the same world. The next one is out in March and I’d like to fill the gap with chat if possible!

Thoughts/predictions from me: Hoping beyond hope that the relationship stuff is resolved at least a bit in the next one, but predict more angst before it is. It might sort of ‘end’ the series - but then Casey could continue a series of the spin offs instead.

I had a question on chronology if anyone has read them all- wondering whether The Outsider (Rob spin off) is supposed to come before or after The Close? I think it matters for the relationship arc, and I can’t decide!

Read to the end of the acknowledgements!!!

Yes, sounds like Maybe there will be a short story/novella before book 12? I read somewhere that Jane Casey plans three books at time so wasn’t expecting book 11 to wrap things up. But the cliffhanger was a shock all the same!

Have spent the morning re-reading some key moments….

Things I am pleased about - within all the general smoking hotness, it was nice to see their relationship become a bit more balanced, with Maeve asserting herself a bit.

Think Jane Casey is best at the tension bits. The phone convo about pyjamas was amazing…

Still frustrated that Maeve doesn’t seem to understand the depth of his feelings - or not quite anyway - or have twigged that when he was talking about the family life he wanted, the thing was that he wanted it with HER.

the crime plot was good too but for me that’s totally incidental now!!

spoiler alert don’t read if you haven’t finished the most recent book yet!

I loved it, and the whole story of Rosalie was fascinating. I could happily read another book about her, what a complex and fascinating character!

I have one thing that I didn’t understand…it was never really explained why her dad gave her the sleeping tablet on holiday? Was he actually abusing her, or was there another reason? I felt there was something between the lines I didn’t quite get…

No I think that was designed to show that not all is what it seems. Like the dad grabbing the nanny out of anger rather than lust and the tutor showing Rosalie some manga instead of his dick

@brieliever that’s a good explanation- I wasn’t sure either. Did wonder if she had left it deliberately ambiguous.

I forgot this was coming out on Friday so I started another book last week and I can't bloody wait to finish it

I've binged them all since just before Christmas, I am so excited for this new one

Oh I was so frustrated! I was thinking if Melissa died it would enable them to get together and derwent to keep Thomas (which is maybe a bit heartless after seeing things from Melissa's point of view a few books before.)

My first thought on that final scene was that Melissa had stabbed Josh, or something like that. She’d been showing signs of becoming progressively more controlling and emotionally abusive for a while…

My first thoughts were also quite gloomy (surely not dead, but some kind of debilitating injury that means he has to quit the job and thinks he doesn’t deserve Maeve etc etc).

BUT then I thought how much Casey is the master of suspenseful turning of the screw before resolving it (eg that bit where Maeve was beaten up and thinks the boyfriend is back, and is hiding, but it’s actually Josh).

so I’ve decided that i’m going to believe that he has had a fairly minor accident (a broken leg?) while doing something for her Dad, so her dad is feeling guilty/anxious when he calls. And actually it’s just a device for her to realise how much she loves him, and has to rush and tell him.

Going cling to that for the whole fecking year until the next one comes out…

Ooh I'm so glad to find this thread! Also finished the latest one this afternoon and can't believe we need to wait a YEAR to find out what happens next! Agree with pp that Rosalie was a fascinating character and would have lived to know more about her life, however it is secondary to the Maeve/Josh tension

The Rosalie story is so good - very twisty and fascinating. I was also pleased to see Maeve being more assertive. There’s definitely going to be a twist to that epilogue as well!

Has anyone read a similarly compelling Kerrigan/Strike type series? I like the crime romance angle. Preferably female author. I’ve read Tana French.

Could try Elly Griffith DI Ruth Galloway series or Helen Fields DI Callanach series.

neither quite as good as Strike or Kerrigan in my view, but enjoyable.

If you don’t mind historical, then the Dorothy L Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane series is glorious.

welcome other suggestions! Have to do something to fill the gap before Strike 8 and Maeve 12!

The Ruth Galloway series is great - set in Norfolk so very different from the Met but fascinating. Love the Harriet Vane-Peter Wimsey too.

Anyone know what THAT LINE that's being discussed is?

In the mirror scene perhaps? I've got it on audio so not so easy to find!

Thoroughly enjoyed it, binge listened yesterday. Sad to have ages to wait for the next one.

Oh and in keeping with the kate Middleton theme of this site, Rose Hanbury (curly hair version) looks exactly like I imagine maeve as. I suspect accent may be slightly off.

@LogansWalk yes probably the mirror scene and what derwent says (ch 45 if that helps!). Though personally thought the bit where they are on the phone and he asks if she is in bed/guesses what she is wearing is hotter!
(where is it being discussed?!)

Maeve isn’t good in relationships though and given they won’t be able to work together if they start a relationship, I can’t see it being anymore successful with Josh than it was with Rob.

Yes, nothing is ever easy or straightforward for her. the final chapter on the beach in Norfolk suggests it will still be very complicated for them.
I liked her turning the tables on Josh, though, in ch. 45.

Ha I am clinging hard to the happy ever after notion! Interestingly I think Derwent knows and understands Maeve very well, but she knows his character but not much about his life or history, so will have to catch up.

thete was a nice line after they finally kissed where she says she feels like for the first time in her life everything is the right way up. Sort of an indication that things will be different with Derwent? (she says, hopefully…)

I could see lots of new updates on this thread, but didn't want to read in case you had all finished A Stranger In the Family - I just finished it today (Audible version). I'm nodding along with everything you've all said. The plot twists about the crimes were amazing as always. I hadn't read any spoilers, but I had read lots of reviews which (weirdly) made me nervous about where things would go between them.

I don't know what's wrong with me but every time I read one of the Maeve books I feel so emotional, and this was no different. I've cried during each of them since Cruel Acts and this time again.

SPOILERS:

Apart from the awful epilogue ending, it all felt so right. And even though I can't wait for the next book I'm so happy with how things developed. It was so - lovely - is the only word I can come up with. Complicated and sexy and sweet and earnest (to use a Jane Casey word) and as a PP said it was so fantastic to see Maeve being the assertive one. Even simple things at the start like them being Maeve and Josh to each other, instead of Kerrigan and Sir were so perfect. I can't imagine (or at least hope not) that you-know-who would be killed off. Then again I never imagined Rob being written out or Derwent becoming a love interest for Maeve....
I like your theory @Zitouna - but one thing I'm wondering is, if nothing bad happens to you-know-who - what will happen with their work? It's such a big part of their relationship and Una has already told Maeve that Josh is off the team after the Marshall case. I hope the next will-they-won't-they is more about them telling each other they love each other (and having mind-blowing sex obvs - although I think it will be hinted at rather than described in detail). But I agree that it will be complicated no matter what, with lots of highs and lows as usual.
I also do think THAT LINE was the mirror scene in Chapter 45 and what Josh said. Maybe I read too much smut but I wasn't as shocked as I thought I'd be 😂. Wasn't it pure Derwent though....
Also, when do we think Godley warned Josh off regarding Maeve - before he joined the team? Or later? I like to think it was before he joined the team and therefore explains why Josh was so closed off/antagonistic to her.
Another question, can we work out the 10 or 12 times Josh thought they could have slept together? I guess Maeve's 2 are from the The Close. I am going to have to read them all again for research purposes 😜.

It was somewhere on Twitter I think? Cos it's mumsnet and we're all
old enough to say it out loud: "hold you down and make you come" is probably it?

Also loved the Harry Potter mentions 😜

Women supporting women.

I feel the same @Atlantic252 i feel very emotional reading them, not sure why!

I am obviously a loon but I did in fact Google whether police officers are allowed to work together and be in a relationship- it’s not actually forbidden but some line manager discretion involved so would be up to Una (but she has said they aren’t working together after this case so maybe nothing left to lose?)

I was also not shocked by the hold you down line, which probably indicates my smut bar being high. I think it was less hot because he was trying to put her off, whereas the earlier bit on the phone was not!

I thought that Josh was over-egging it with 10-12, and couldn’t think what they were, but going to try and work it out. I think Maeve’s two were The Close and then the time at the wedding where they danced together and he went off with the bridesmaid.

Yes I think those are the two. (Nothing Josh says shocks me!)
if you have the kindle version of The Burning (and probably in paperback editions) there’s a final scene where Godley wants Josh to join the team. It’s a firm no from Josh until he claps eyes on Maeve and hears her in full flow against Belcott. Godley warns him off trying anything on with her or he’ll get rid of him and Josh promises he won’t.

@WendyWebersdrugget my version of the Burning was before the bonus chapter 🙁so I didn't know that - thank you SO much. It's a genius addition, I will have to find it somehow. So basically now, we can believe it was almost love-at-first-sight for Josh? I think he's further in love with her than she is with him (or she will allow herself to admit). Mind you, even after reading The Close I was still wary of what he was really up to - it was only when I read the Outsider that I realised how sincere he is. My defence is that as we're reading it as Maeve, I'm as blind as she is 🙄.

@Zitouna you are not a loon - or maybe we both are because I'm obsessed 😂- but that is excellent detective work. Now that you mention it, didn't Rob leave because of Godley's rule and not necessarily an official policy. They have to keep working together (stomps foot).

I must confess I thought 'that line' was the first one - with the 'inside' word (not a prude but don't want to spoil for anyone 😜). I thought it was more intense somehow - crude but hot - although I think my face was on fire through that entire chapter and I needed whatever the female equivalent of a cold shower is.

I don't know what's wrong with me but I didn't get as much out of the pyjama conversation, because I wasn't sure if Maeve was inferring more desire than Josh actually conveyed. Mind you, then she said she could hear him pacing around the room afterwards so I'd love to think he was debating about whether to go to her.

Do you think we will ever find out what he actually said on the conference call?