I was lucky enough to get an advance review copy of The Secret Room by Janet Casey, having just completed the series so far last week, in preparation for this book - the 12th in the Maeve Kerrigan series.

It is a rare thing for a series to reach its twelfth instalment. It must be rarer still for it to do so while still maintaining a very high level of quality and consistency. The series was recommended to me online and I started it in April 2024. I started working through the books and have picked up the pace as I went - more and more engaged by the characters and how their personalities developed as I moved through the books. I’m so pleased that I picked these up - I read a lot of mysteries and these are written to a very high standard, the mysteries are always absorbing and interesting, and the solution often isn’t obvious but the clues are there! The characters are interesting and absorbing, with many shades of grey - the vast majority of characters feel very realistic and the development over the series is great, with a number of story arcs threading through multiple books. Jane Casey is obviously a talented, skilful writer and I really enjoy her writing.

Ilaria Cavendish is the victim of The Secret Room, which kicks off in a modern version of a classic trope - the locked room murder. Found dead in a hotel room where she had a standing assignation with her lover, there is plenty of CCTV evidence to detail how she got there, but the issue is that there is no time for her to have been killed. And so the curtain lifts on another tricky puzzle for the team to solve. However, as always they have personal lives that bleed into work and distract them from the task at hand.

I was totally drawn in by this mystery - I found it really engaging and I honestly couldn’t wait to see what happened next. There were plenty of twists and turns throughout the story and it was more than enough to keep me on my toes!

I have seen a lot of discussion online about the balance in these books between work / personal lives of Maeve and Josh, but in all honesty, I think that a really good balance is struck between moving along the story in their personal lives as well as managed to progress their current case. I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t wait to get back to it to se what happened next and I already can’t wait for the next one!

If you haven’t already read this series - what a gift you have in store! Technically, each book probably could be read as a standalone, but you would really be missing out on the valuable character development and the backstory to the characters - I feel like I’ve known them from afar for years!

I really enjoyed this book, in all aspects and would heartily recommend it, but if you haven’t already, read the series - it will be worth it!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book #12 in the Maeve Kerrigan series and what a rollercoaster of emotions this was!

After the cliffhanger and epilogue in ‘A Stranger in the Family’ I honestly could not wait to get my hands on this ARC, so as soon as it landed in my TBR pile, it went straight to the top!

I absolutely adore this series and the excitement it brings with each new installment never wavers. Each new book delivers something new every time.

The build up of tension is just perfection.  This is a book that will have you ignoring the world guaranteed.

To say the plot was unique was an understatement, it not only had me fully immersed and invested but also scratching my head the whole way through. I couldn’t,  for the life of me, work out what the hell was happening.

In the newest addition to the series, Maeve and Josh are tasked with investigating the ‘impossible’ murder scenario of Ilaria Cavendish. An interior designer, married to mega rich Angus.

Found in a hotel room at The Governor hotel, in a bath full of boiling water, after reviewing CCTV footage, Maeve, Josh and the team are stumped. How did anyone get in or out of the room without being captured on any of the cameras and who would want Ilaria dead?

Whilst investigating this case, Josh is arrested for assaulting his partner. Found unresponsive and battered at the bottom of the stairs, whilst Josh is found covered in her blood, he’s adamant he didn’t harm Melissa in any way. No matter what he says, the investigators just don’t believe him. Josh tells Maeve to keep away, but Maeve doesn’t follow orders well and goes against any advise given to get Josh free.

As always the characterisation is amazingly written. Each character stands out and I loved both Maeve’s parents and Luke playing a more prominent role in this book.

The ‘will they, won’t they?’ between Josh and Maeve is still red hot but will Josh finally push her away too hard or will he take the advise from others and finally be honest with his feelings?

As requested by Jane Casey, I’m not even mentioning any details regarding the ending BUT I will say, the bigger the present,  the bigger the bow and this was wrapped up with the biggest, prettiest bow!

Massive thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

From the very first page, The Secret Room grips you in its unrelenting hold, blending suspense with intricately layered characters and a heart-pounding will they-won't they plot, which at some point in the book brought me to tears (the full significance and scope only become clear when you have read the entire series, though you can still enjoy this as a standalone). Jane Casey has once again delivered a thrilling masterpiece that will leave readers breathless and glued to the pages until the very end.
What I love most about Casey’s writing is her ability to create characters that feel so real, you can't help but invest in their fates. Maeve and Josh are drawn with such depth, making their emotions and actions truly resonate, and the psychological complexity is remarkable.
I couldn't put it down, and I’m still thinking about the final chapters days later! Jane Casey has once again proven why she is a master of the genre. If you haven’t read her work yet, now is the perfect time to dive in!

Highly recommend!

Really enjoyed this book, except I wish I had read all the previous books first. I have really missed out! It read really well as a standalone, it is well written and the characters and plot lines are well set out and exceptionally plausible. Thoroughly recommend it, but read all the others first!!

It does feel for a lot of the book as if the murder to be solved is secondary to the romance and tension between the main detective protagonist and her colleague, but long one readers of the series have been waiting for a resolution of that theme in the story arc for quite some time!

Very quick paced, lots of character development, a sturdy murder case that is investigated and a subplot that I read very easily - an enjoyable read overall.

Fans of this series are going to be absolutely delighted with this latest instalment. Maeve Kerrigan, young London-Irish DS in the Met is one of the stand-out crime fiction heroine's of the decade, and she's in full form in the Secret Room. Her slow-burn potential relationship with DI Josh Derwent is tested to the limit and perhaps beyond. And by this stage
The central locked room mystery of this book may leave sharp crime fiction fans slightly underwhelmed, as the solution is fairly obvious. The secondary mystery, relating more to Maeve's personal life, was similarly straightforward to work out. However, there is so much here of what readers have come to love from Casey that all the fans of this series will be delighted.

Love, love, love this book! This is my favourite series and The Secret Room didn't disappoint. Maeve Kerrigan and Josh Derwent are investigating an impossible murder. A woman is found dead in a hotel room but nobody went in and nobody came out. A locked room mystery, the best slow burn ever and great writing. Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins for this ARC.

This is the most perfect instalment in the Maeve Kerrigan series.

With most of the books in this series, I say it CAN be read as a standalone but usually say it's preferable to read them in order. With this one, I say you MUST read the prior books - which is no chore - and I wish I got to enjoy them all over again for the first time!

This instalment has even more character development alongside the crime(s) Maeve and her team are trying to solve.
It is definitely far less of the police procedural than earlier books in the series, but I certainly don't see that as a negative at all.

The police elements are still as carefully thought out, and damn clever(!), as always. While you might predict one or two little things, I swear it is impossible to guess everything that Jane Casey has to reveal.

Thanks to Jane Casey's authors note at the end, I am now eagerly awaiting the next instalment!!

Another twisty crime novel from this popular author who never fails to deliver. Lots of sub plots and full of relationship tension between Maeve and Josh make this more than a crime novel. 4 stars from me as I did guess the medical mystery very early on.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the review copy.

Superb installment in the Maeve Kerrigan series. The highest highs and the lowest lows for Maeve as she works towards the resolution of her conflicted personal relationship with Josh and a tough to crack murder mystery. It is series of a very believable next steps for all the regualr characters in the series. Those who love Maeve and Josh will be thrilled with the both the mystery and the romance!

Here comes the 12th book in the Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey, and it has it all. In "The Secret Room", we follow our favorite detectives as they hunt for the truth and justice through the streets of London, working to solve a new thrilling case, which is a modernized take on the classic locked-room mystery.

Maeve is brilliant as always, and the pacing, as well as the multiple twists and turns, won’t let you put the book down (so beware of a potential all-nighter!). All things considered, I count this book among my top three in the Maeve Kerrigan series.

A huge thank you to Jane Casey and NetGalley for making this book available as an ARC before its official release. It is greatly appreciated because we all know how hard it is to wait for the next book in a favorite series. I honestly couldn’t imagine having to hold out for a few more months—especially after that ending in "A Stranger in the Family"!

Well! This is outstanding, an absolute must-read for fans of the series and of Maeve, and has a murder I'd never have guessed the solution to. I've loved Jane Casey's writing for a while now, and this is tense and twisty. It's difficult to review without spoilers, but the whole way through I kept thinking I could see where things were going in various plotlines, only to be surprised at the actual resolution every single time. I'm going to be thinking about it for quite a while, and lets face it I'm probably going to go straight back and read the whole thing all over again.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Fabulous it is wonderful to be back with Meave and Josh again! Another thrilling book from Jane Casey, Endless drama mixed with emotional and appropriate challenges of the heart and head. Many thanks for access.

Thrilling and suspenseful, enjoyable to read and satisfying. I loved this book, it offers so many answers. The main and secondary characters are well characterized and there are two very well developed plots. I would only recommend reading at least the previous two volumes: the fun will be guaranteed.

DS Maeve Kerrigan is back! Book 12 in the series opens in an upscale London hotel, where a man finds his lover submerged in scalding hot water in the bath. It looks accidental but she has definitely been murdered. The problem is no one entered the room with enough time complete the murder. This tricky case is a good distraction for Maeve, especially as she worries about DI Josh Derwent. But even this case isn't enough to distract Maeve when Josh finds himself in a serious situation. He doesn't want Maeve to be involved, but she's determined to do everything she can to help. But will this help be detrimental?

While you could read this as a stand alone, I really suggest you don't. Each book in the series can be read as a stand alone but the relationships between characters, in particular Maeve and Josh, are built over the entire series and are really important to each book. And while a lot of the time the murder storyline is the focal point of the book, in this one it shares top billing with the Josh storyline and his problem. So I think if you go into it cold without reading any of the previous books, it could be a disappointment.

For those of you who are big time fans of this series, I don't think you'll be disappointed! I was hooked from the get go, just wanting to read this whenever I had a the chance to book up the book. I enjoyed the murder mystery element of it and how all that came together but more importantly, I enjoyed the Maeve and Josh storyline! No spoilers but I cannot wait to discuss this with others who have read it!

Okay. Alright. I had to do a few laps around my house after finishing this one, and I'm not even kidding.

The Secret Room is the 12th instalment of Maeve Kerrigan series and, while we've come so far, Jane Casey has no intention of slowing down. If anything, she stepped on the gas pedal and flung us straight over the drawbridge!

After #11 'A Stranger in the Family' ends with a (frankly) devious cliffhanger, we're dropping in again to find Maeve trying to solve the murder case of Ilaria Cavendish, a rich interior designer who enters a hotel room and dies without anyone going in or out. It is a very intriguing locked room mystery! Our detectives have to deal with this head-scratcher on top of shocking developments in Josh's personal life.

It was a rollercoaster from start to finish. From the murder case, to the events in Maeve and Josh's personal lives. Our favorite detectives are going through it, you guys, and I was just itching to give them a hug throughout the novel. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time, and I carried my kindle everywhere with me so I could spend every single spare minute reading.

For those new to this series, the main mystery in this novel (as in every previous instalment!) can be enjoyed even by first time readers without missing anything, and if the mystery plot is all you're here for, by all means dig right in. It's a juicy one!

But if you appreciate the plots involving main characters' personal lives mixed in with your mystery, I warmly recommend starting from the beginning because it's really worth it to see Maeve grow from the only woman DC on the team and all the insecurities that came with it, into Detective Sargent Kerrigan. And not to mention the will-they-won't-they romance between Josh and Maeve that starts from dislike and grows into grudging respect and then...and then!

This novel ends with another bombshell development that had me experiencing a full spectrum of emotions I wasn't prepared for on a Sunday morning. I simply can't recommend this novel enough!

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advanced copy!

I have not read any in this series before but I am hooked! Compelling and clever writing which makes you struggle to put this book down. I found it easy to understand the characters history and live the relationships featured in this thriller

Such a huge fan of the Maeve Kerrigan series and this one did not disappoint. A locked room mystery and something special for the long-term fans of the series which didn't take from the strong and sometimes painfully individual of Maeve! Just a fab read, so well balanced.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this-probably the most exciting I’ve received so far as i’ve been really looking forward to the next installement of this series, given the cliff-hanger of the last book. It’s so difficult to write this review without giving away any spoilers BUT I will say it had so much going on with several sub-plots. I’m someone who often reads for the characters over the plot but I really, really enjoy both in this series.

OMG!!!!!!!! I am without words right now, the only thing I can do is stare blankly at the wall feeling dizzy. I read this book in one sitting, and I was holding my breath until the very ending, jane Casey did it again and wrote another masterpiece that will be living rent free in mind until the next book. The way Jane Casey is able to surprise me book after book is unmatched and refreshing. I think that after some amount of reading you start to get a little more “tough” and “seasoned” in the way that being really surprised with something new gets more rare with time,specially considering the times we are living in. But at same time the joy you find when you discover and immerse yourself in a really good book ( in these case fortunately a reasonable quantity of books) is unmatched, in my mind it’s similar to find a treasure or the sensation you have when you find THAT piece of clothing thrifting, that’s so unique and exactly what you were searching for-or most of the times better than anything you could even imagine yourself- and every time you use that piece you feel the same joy you felt the day you found it, you actually treasure and appreciate it every single time, because in a way the the thrill of the hunt of finding it hidden among tons of rubbish make it even more special. I think this analogy explains really well my relation with the Maeve Kerrigan series, since the first book that I read I was really hooked and the more I read into the series more I treasured it like my favorite thrift finds. I went in without much expectation and find myself surprised and obsessed in away that no book had made me feel in the last few years. And to finish my ramble: joshmaeve are E V E R Y T H I N G!!!