3 out of 4 stars
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Pancake Money is a brilliant crime novel about detective Bobby Ress an honest cop who loves his wife, daughter and detective partner. It was such an engaging read (and less than 200 pages) so I finished it in a couple of days! The book starts on a Monday when Bobby and his partner Pollo have a new case to look into: an elderly, retired priest has been found murdered in his home. He was killed by being horrifically beaten to death and just when Pollo and Bobby are completely bewildered about where to look next another body turns up. Another elderly, retired priest has been murdered. They have no idea who is responsible and as more people start dying in awful ways Bobby learns that if you hurt someone badly enough and for long enough there is nothing, absolutely nothing that they won’t do.
Bobby goes through an internal struggle over which is more important to him: his detective work or his family. Bobby wants to be at home with his wife and daughter, the later has a rare condition, which means she rarely ventures outside and avoids all contact with people. Slowly, Bobby and his wife have been persuading her to take more steps into the outside world and he would love to be there to support her through it. But Bobby can’t leave Pollo on an unsolved case involving murdered priests (with the number rising every day), not when Pollo has been his friend and mentor for many years.Now on a case-by-case basis, there’s some uncertainty at this point. Maybe I have to break your arm only once. Maybe a few times. But eventually, the only difference between people is time. I absolutely guarantee you that if I’m consistent, if I hurt you badly enough for long enough, I can make you do anything I want
Some of the scenes were quite brutal: the priests were murdered in horrible ways and the descriptions could be nauseating for some (me included) but it added to the suspense and drama. If you are squeamish you might want to prepare yourself before picking up this book but don’t let it deter you or you’ll seriously be missing out!
I really enjoyed reading this – it was a cracking book! The characters were great (I loved the dynamic between Bobby and Pollo most of all) and the plot was extremely well thought through: everything fitted perfectly into place. However, I would only give it 3 out of 4 stars because in the last quarter of the book I guessed who the murderer was. Maybe this is because I read too many crime novels but the ending didn’t shock me, which is an essential element to a five star who-dun-it.
******It’s all just pancake money.
Pancake Money
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