Book Summary and Reviews of The White Crow by Michael Robotham

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Labmom55

Engrossing
4.5 stars, rounded up

The White Crow is an engrossing, fast paced second book in the Philomena “Phil” McCarthy series. Phil is a police constable, but she’s also the daughter of a well known criminal boss. Talk about walking a fine line! One night on patrol, she sees a child out in the middle of the night. Taking the little girl home, she finds the child’s mother dead, the victim of a home invasion gone wrong. Meanwhile, a jeweler is found at his burgled store with a bomb strapped to him.

The book flips between multiple POVs, including those of her father and uncles and the actual detective on the case. I appreciate that all the characters were well developed, to the point I wanted to see her father come out on top. Flip side, there was one senior police officer I wanted to see get his comeuppance.

Robotham writes easy to envision scenes. I kept finding excuses to read, including in the middle of the night. Trust me, this one does not help cure insomnia! I was willing to just keep reading. I hope that Robotham writes a third in the series.
The book would easily work as a stand-alone, but trust me, you’re going to want to read both books.

My thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advance copy of this book.

Cloggie Downunder

another dose of brilliant crime fiction from a master of the genre.
The White Crow is the second book in the Philomena McCarthy series by award-winning, bestselling Australian author, Michael Robotham. A home invasion with a hostage held while a jeweller is forced to open his shop and safe, nets the thieves over four million pounds. Unaware of this, PC Philomena McCarthy, now four years out of Hendon and a year married to firefighter, Henry, is on a 3am food run for her colleagues at Kentish Town police station when she spots a child in pyjamas wandering the street. Five-year-old Daisy Kemp-Lowe says she can’t wake her mother, and Philomena soon learns why this is tragically true.

DCI Brendan Keegan is on the Kemp-Lowe Jewel robbery, but he considers his priority is finding Caitlin Kemp-Lowe’s murderer. Investigations, interviews and CCTV soon has him suspecting slippery career criminal Eddie McCarthy, and his brothers, but pinning this on him is a challenge. Ignorant of any connection, when Phil asks to be part of the case, he allows it, impressed by her observational skills. When it becomes apparent just who her father is, Keegan is livid, and her career is on the line.

Under interrogation, Eddie McCarthy denies all knowledge of the home invasion and robbery, although he does secretly have a stake in the case. But Eddie has bigger problems: the bank is ready to call in their loans because his Hope Island development is behind schedule, delayed by lockdowns, skills shortages, supply disruptions and the like, but lately plagued by vandalism on an unprecedented scale. It’s clear someone wants his turf.

Before matters are resolved, there will be more deaths, extortion and blackmail, an abduction, quite a bit of gunplay, a tunnel escape, and a fire. By halfway, the astute reader might well discern the identity of the perpetrator of one of the crimes, but the journey to the nail-biting climax and the very satisfying resolution is worth every page.

Robotham gives the reader a wonderful cast of characters, of whom Phil’s uncles are a particular delight, and it’s soon apparent he had a lot of fun with their dialogue, and whatnot. Twists, turns and the odd red herring make this another dose of brilliant crime fiction from a master of the genre.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Hachette Australia.

Other books by Michael Robotham at BookBrowse

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