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!

@redavocado i found him a bit of a cipher in the Maeve books - obvs lots going on in his head but it wasn’t easy to understand his motivations. The Outsider then reveals more, but it doesn’t feel totally consistent somehow - for someone apparently so perceptive, it’s hard to imagine he didn’t guess what an impact his leaving in that way would have on Maeve and how cruel it was. I mean, she was basically broken for a year, and then so insecure that she was easy prey for Seth - whereas Rob seems to have seen her as emotionally untouched by him or his leaving.

And the weirdness of him those convos with her parents (and not her!) about money and future, and then still just disappearing.

Unless he saw the truth re her feelings for Josh years before she did? But then that doesn’t seem the case from the Outsider.

Can’t decide if it’s inconsistent writing or if he’s just a wrongun!

Thanks for recommending the podcast - I loved it. Really interesting that she sees the last book as a kind of standalone - to be fair there are no arrests! It was also lovely to hear her read the start of the latest book and I completely agree with her that book 4 is where the series really hits its stride.
when I first read the early books I liked Rob and was shocked by how he behaved in the end but when I reread them I didn’t like him so much - he was too full of himself and Maeve’s mum is quite right about her putting him on a pedestal. I think the writing is very clever although in The Outsider I think he was allowed to let himself off the hook a tiny bit. Typical Rob!

@Zitouna I’d forgotten about Maeve picking Josh to marry 😂. I hope we get to see him in full boyfriend/husband mode and that he’s romantic and spoils her a bit. Maeve won’t allow him to be patronising anyway and we know he’s secretly very generous and thoughtful. I think your theory about Maeve realising how she feels could be spot on. I was a bit shocked that she fell to her knees in the epilogue. I know she cares about him (and fancies him) but I didn’t think shes fully in love with him yet but you’re right - this might trigger it.

@Maria97 I think Jane Casey said she still loves writing Maeve so has no plans to stop, but there’s been no mention yet of Maeve13. There’s a standalone after Maeve12 so we might be waiting a while ☹️.

Thank you from me too for the Podcast, such a lovely interview. Really interesting that she’d re-write the Burning. I’ll have to read it again but it got me hooked.

I liked Rob - cos he loved Maeve I guess - but I was appalled at how he left and the secrets afterwards. @redavocado you were just more clued in than the likes of me cos he turned out to be a wrong’un for Maeve 😂

Oh and my latest observation from The Close - did Josh emphasise to Maeve that he could cook, because he heard her saying to Georgia that a man who's good in bed and can cook was impossible? 😂

Delurking to admit/profess my guilty and reluctant love for estwhile knuckle-dragger Josh and say...isnt Amazon flagging a new release for April 2025 that you can pre-order? With this blurb...

😂 Glad that my initially random dislike of Rob based on the narrator can be justified! I do think there's a lack of consistency in the writing but Casey does improve as the series progresses.

I’m almost finished The Kill in my rereading. I agree there are huge inconsistencies in the characters of Rob and Josh as the first 5 books proceed.
I don’t know when Jane Casey decided on her long term relationship planning for Maeve, but it really seems as if she wrote the awful parts of Rob in at a later date to make us dislike him and switch our love to Josh.
Is it bad that in the beginning I thought Maeve would end up with Godley, until he, again inconsistently I feel, became a baddie in book 3.

@Atlantic252 thank you so much! I have just finished "A Stranger in the Family" after reading the whole series within the last 3 months...and now I am so desperate without continuing...can't stop thinking about the characters :)

@Iloveshihtzus that's really interesting about Rob vs Josh. We know Josh wasn't meant to be permanent but it's so clever how his love of Maeve back-fits to every book.

@Maria97 I am the exact same - I've never been so obsessed with fictional characters- in books or even on TV. They feel so real! I don't want to leave them.

This was a recent interview with Jane Casey in the Irish RTÉ Guide (equivalent of Radio Times). She says Maeve12 starts a few months after the end of ASITF so I have no idea when the epilogue will fit in now...

I felt Rob leaving seemed really oddly abrupt and not in keeping with his behaviour so far. I also really didn’t see what the point of bringing in the fact he was a multi millionaire who owned numerous properties in London, including the one they lived in. It just seemed to be thrown into the books and didn’t really go anywhere.

Not strictly Maeve, but for any Irish MNers The Killing Kind is starting on RTE2 on Tuesday 30th April 🥳.

I have the audiobook ordered from the library so not sure now if I should read it first and record the series and watch afterwards.

@TheSnowyOwl that's a good point about Rob's wealth - unless it was just a way to show how distant he and Maeve were. I've just finished a re-read of The Last Girl where Maeve talked about her Mum being impressed by Josh being a DI and caring about Rob having prospects. So it would explain Rob telling her parents maybe...

Spotted a twitter update from Jane Casey that said “the stairs will be back” in the next book!

Be still my beating heart…

I seen that aswell 😀😀

Ooo thank you @Zitouna off to trawl Twitter. Do you think that means they will (finally 🙄) sleep together in book 12?

And if they do, how on earth will Jane Casey do justice to how good we expect Josh to be in bed? Woman he has loved forever ✅ stamina of a marathon runner ✅ Hailey's testimony in that short story ✅ self-proclaimed nymphomaniac ✅😂.

I may be spending too much time thinking about this 🫣😂

@Atlantic252 fair to say I have given the matter some thought myself 😁. I’m not sure she would actually be able to write the detail… maybe we can have a dazed Maeve aftermath and the rest left to imagination!

@Zitouna I think we're probably in good company and that lots of women readers think about Josh in that way 😂. But I think you're right - it will be more about how Maeve feels afterwards like when she was with Rob. If she can still function of course 😂. It would be funny if they refer back to their hilarious fake sex when they were trying to wind up Chris Swain that time 😂.

On other topics, did you see her tweet about having to write a really hard scene 😱. I can't believe she would kill off Josh but I'm still worried. What else could she find really hard to write? 😳

I also saw her tweet (and Insta post) with the inspiration photos for ASITF. Does the one with 'Josh' lying down in his shirt and tie refer to him dozing on the sofa in Ivo's house? I saw someone else asked but I can't quite place it either 🤦‍♀️

@Atlantic252 hmm I thought the Josh one was him lounging back on the stairs after their stairs encounter - tho a weird angle! Man in the photo seemed suitably ravaged!

also saw the bit about a ‘hard scene’ to write. Am basically ignoring that and refusing to consider the awful possibilities…

Thanks all
A new book series to read

I have a feeling she will kill off someone close to Maeve.. Maybe Liv? Liv's character hasn't grown much over the past few books and killing her off will shatter Maeve. Anyone but Josh.😢

I was assuming the man asleep was supposed to be Josh on the hotel bed at the end of the book when Maeve has been found.

@quietpink i’m jealous of anyone starting from the beginning! Enjoy 😊

@Joylovesbooks of course! Makes much more sense.

Has anyone outside the UK found a way to get the bonus chapter for The Burning??

Hello All! I went to a crime lot book festival last night - Slaughterfest- where the wonderful Jane Casey was on a panel…

she said she was 3 paragraphs away from
finishing the next Maeve. And musingly said she wasn’t sure it was even crime fic anymore, that it was a hybrid and at least 50% about relationships “at least until her editor gets hold of it”. Can only hope good things….

if anyone finding the wait a bit much, and as per convo up thread, I note that someone has now written some excellent wish fulfilment fanfic on AO3, which is very pleasing! Huge thanks if it is anyone related to this thread! 😁

I have recently started reading these and have just finished book 4! Really enjoying them so far

Oh @Zitouna I am so jealous! I saw the pics on Insta and it looked amazing! That is fab news about Maeve 12 😍 but from going through Twitter history the editors have removed romance-y stuff before so I hope this time is different.

Did she give any clues about what's after Maeve 12? I am really worried there won't be another one for a while after that..

And thank you for the new fanfic pointer - I've just read them - they are excellent and the characterisation is sooo good!

I'm getting through my To Be Read pile but still nothing is affecting me like Maeve has.

@LH1977 did you have any luck with the Burning? I am in ROI and was able to get the Kindle version with the bonus chapter but not sure if you're looking for a hard copy?