The 4th and latest instalment in Masterman’s Brigid Quinn series. The 4th book in my 20 Books of Summer Challenge (3rd finished, East of Eden is going to take more time than any book in this challenge to finish – should I continue with the audio – but I don’t see how I wouldn’t since it’s really great in audio!) ;-)
And excuse me while I’m off on another ramble here….the Brigid Quinn series is just another new series I’ve started reading, and another where I am not starting with the first in the series. The majority of my absolutely beloved mystery series are by Elizabeth George and Louise Penny, and I started both far into their series, but once started have read every one in order (George is now at #20 in the Inspector Lynley series and I started at #8 and Penny at #15 in the Gamache series and I started at #7). Here, in the Brigid Quinn series, I didn’t feel like I’ve missed out on too much since I started with the 4th, because I feel like Masterman fills in enough of Brigid’s past to catch onto what is going on now. (And another series I started at with #4 was Iona Whishaw’s fantastic Lane Winslow series! I fell in love with that series beginning with #4 so don’t feel like I’m doing any damage starting any of these series later in their games.)
I was quickly drawn into this one, and it really didn’t take too long to zip through it. It comes with an interesting premise weaving together the story in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood with an additional theory of “what if there was a 3rd person” and this person was involved in the infamous murders in Kansas, but also a second family whose murders remain unsolved and might have included this same group of killers?
In Cold Blood is a book I have owned for years, but haven’t read it yet (are you surprised by this?) Masterman writing for Crime Reads discusses this possibility of a third person and a second murder case, “What Capote was not obsessing over was the near-identical murder of the Walker family. ” We Were Killers Once explores this possibility and pits Brigid up against a potentially dangerous killer.
Like in the other mystery series, these books also have plenty of ongoing background development of its characters, their personal lives, and idiosyncrasies. I enjoyed Brigid and in We Were Killers Once, we learn of Brigid’s insecurities with her husband Carlo and his first (now deceased) wife. Brigid is an interesting character for sure and a pleasure to read about – a former FBI agent, in her 60s and married for the first time. I look forward to reading more about Brigid and the cases she becomes involved in! While reading We Were Killers Once, I did have some questions about plausibility – but it is actually addressed in the end because they show up as Brigid’s concerns as well!
The other books in this series are all available from my library, so I will more than likely go back and read those too. Thanks to Netgalley, Penguin Random House Canada and my library for allowing me to read We Were Killers Once. Another excellent series I get to follow along with!
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