"Behind Closed Doors" by JJ Marsh

Beatrice Stubbs, a detective with Scotland Yard, has been recovering for the past year from a suicide attempt. She takes medication for bipolar disorder, and her condition now seems under control. Her boss thinks the time has come for her to take charge of an investigation. 

Nd it may not be a case at all. In Switzerland, a businessman associated with an unsavory business has committed suicide, leaving not note. The circumstances are so similar to another suicide in Liechtenstein that an investigation is warranted. And Stubbs will be working with a Swiss detective and a rather international team from Europol.

 

The reader knows what Stubbs and her team don’t know. These are not suicides but well-planned murders. There are more like six or seven of them than two. And the one thing they all have in common is Antonella D’Arcy, head of an investment firm in Zurich. The victims did business with her, knew her, played polo with her, or had some other connection. 

 

JJ Marsh

The team makes progress, but it’s slow. Interpol, which is funding the investigation, wants results like yesterday. But as the team makes headway, they don’t realize that one of their own may also be the killer’s target.

 

Behind Closed Doors is the first of 13 Beatrice Stubbs police thriller novels by JJ Marsh. It includes a heavy emphasis on the setting (you learn a lot about Zurich) and the plodding but ultimately successful aspects of police investigatory procedure. And Marsh throws in enough team tension to keep the internal workings interesting. 

 

In addition to the Beaturice Stubbs series, Marsh has also published three novels in the Run and Hide series and three standalone novels. She has degrees in English Literature and Theatre Studies, and has worked as an actor, teacher, writer, director, editor, journalist, and Cultural trainer. She lives in Switzerland and also blogs at her web site.

 

Behind Closed Doors is a tension-building, thriller of a suspense novel, grounded in police procedure and with characters reflecting their national homelands (even in a Euro-type environment).