Knife Edge - Kerry Buchanan

There's no reason why a crime thriller based in Northern Ireland should be any different from a thriller based in any other part of the UK, but aside from the locations and geography, Kerry Buchanan doesn't seem to make the most of the opportunities for the two PSNI detectives in her first Harvey and Birch thriller series. Regardless of whether the nature of the case of serial killer abductions in Knife Edge might not be the kind of crime we traditionally associate with the province, it doesn't seem as if the author really develops or makes the most of the unique circumstances of working as police officers in the Police Service of Northern Ireland in this first novel of her series.

Purely in terms of it being a dark crime thriller however, Knife Edge certainly sets out to live up to its title. Nic Gordon is a young woman who has suffered a horrendous experience at the hands of a vicious killer. She and her friend Colm had been abducted at a Belfast club where their drinks had been spiked and both have endured an ordeal of being tied up and cut with knives over a number of days. Hearing her friend brutally murdered, Nic manages to escape, but her ordeal is far from over. And I don't mean just reliving the experience through the police investigation or the trauma of slow recovery.

While it's nominally the two PSNI officers Asha Harvey and Aaron Birch based on the Lisburn Road who are the central to Kerry Buchanan's series, the events in Knife Edge are viewed almost entirely from Nic's viewpoint. She is the one who got away, someone who might provide the key to uncovering a killer who has switched operations from North Yorkshire to Belfast, but it's not going to be easy to go back or discover the fate of Colm who was abducted with her. Asha and Aaron however are sympathetic and protective in the days following her recovery, which is good, as the killer hasn't given up on this victim just yet.

Well, good and not so good obviously. And not so good either as far as keeping the plot realistic or meaningfully related to the Northern Ireland region. The locations are authentic enough, but the crime and crime investigation side of Knife Edge are rather more generic, and could be anywhere in the UK. In fact, as noted, this killer comes to Northern Ireland from England, as Belfast is not known to have a great problem with abductions by serial killers, particularly one who is clearly toying with his victim. Nic, it seems, is keen to do her own investigation, although the killer certainly gives her personal reasons to remain involved and playing his game.

The handling of the case and protection of the victim doesn't reflect well however on the PSNI or Harvey and Birch, who seem to be involved here more in a safeguarding and victim support role than as crime investigation officers. Either they are not great at their job or they give Nic too much leeway (Want to log on to one of our computers and do your own investigation and chase down a killer? Go right ahead...), but there are too many liberties taken and failure to follow basic procedure. Not only does it stretch credibility letting a citizen go it alone against a dangerous killer - one who seems to have powers of near invisibility to slip past security and cameras - but with little else of distinction to offer, the plot descends into an unlikely repetitive game of tracking down, getting caught and escaping.

That said, just on the basics of being an entertaining crime thriller, Knife Edge is hugely readable and certainly delivers plenty of thrills and danger, and provides enough personality, character and office intrigue to make it interesting to see how a team like Harvey and Birch get on in subsequent books in the series. 

Reading notes: Knife Edge by Kerry Buchanan, the first book in the Detectives Harvey & Birch Mystery series is published by Joffe Books. Read from the Kindle edition.