Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

There are police procédurals featuring cops you like, and then ones featuring cops you want to keep reading about for a long time. Caz Frear’s Cat Kinsella definitely falls into the latter category. I loved the first book in this series and was thrilled to get a copy of this one. Sharp writing, tense plot, unputdownable! I hope Cat is with us for a long time.

In this 3rd in the London Metropolitan Police series, DC Cat Kinsella and her partner Luigi take on a cold case, that was believed to have been solved already. Serial killer Christopher Masters was believed to have done the deed but never confessed.

As Cat pursues the investigation, she turns up all kinds of surprises, including the involvement of a corrupt cop. This excellent series remains on my must read list.

This crime thriller was engaging and kept you wondering what was going to happen next. I was unaware this part of a series, but was great even without having read the first two books in the series.

The third book in the Cat Kinsella series will delight fans. When the bones of a woman missing for six years is found in a field, it is assumed she is a victim of the Roommate Killer but when things don’t line up for the match, Cat and her partner must find who did kill the young woman. I think the words “gripping, edge of your seat and tense” are often overused but in this case they fit. Nothing is as it seems and the pieces slowly come together

A thank you to Netgalley for sharing the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

That can I say? I just love this series (and I only read a hand full) but so far, it's proven to be a great go-to mystery, so I was incredibly pleased when I learned that the third installment was forthcoming. It didn't disappoint. It's gritty, but not gruesome, a mystery that you don't solve by page five, and the characters, they're the icing on the cake. I love Cat, I love Lou, and I totally dig Steele - they're all relatable and pretty badass is their own ways. The premise of this one was intriguing and the ending satisfying. Look forward to hunkering down with the next one.

A great follow up to the first two books in the series. Cat's story is a fascinating one, and this book is no different. Her character feels so incredibly real!

I have read an enjoyed all the books in this series, but my interest in waning in this 3rd installment.

Overall, each book is an excellent police procedural. The plot is well thought out, the writing is on point, and the character development is strong. With the cliffhanger from book 2, I was really hoping to see some of the family and romance drama resolved in book 3.

Not only is the situation with Cat's gangster past AND Aiden somewhat unrealistic, it is getting old. While there was a good central mystery to this novel, a lot of the narrative focused on Cat's (self-imposted) personal problems and struggles.

How many books can our protagonist devolve in until she is no longer our protagonist? There is not a lot, if any, justification for her secret keeping, duplicity, and involvement with the family she seems to loathe, and I think any right-minded partner would have long grown suspicious of her behavior and ended the relationship. Considering none of these issues were resolved and appear will continue yet again into the next installment, I cannot give this book 5 stars.

I don't know why it always feels like it takes me forever to reach the end of a Caz Frear book.... it truly only takes as long as any other on my list! I enjoy the various supporting characters, possible more than I do Cat Kinsella. I continue to be torn between sympathy for her and frustration. She is, in all, a fascinating character and I'm enjoying the series immensely.

I don’t think I’ve read the previous books in this series, but will eventually, as this was a good book and definitely kept my intrigued throughout! Well written, suspenseful, and chilling! I found it to quite riveting and had a hard time setting down, but didn’t find myself wanting to pick it up like I would a 5 star! A few twists and turns, lots of thrills & chills, suspense, and shock will definitely be provided in the reading of this novel! I do recommend reading first two prior, if you’re weird like me, as this may have been a 5 star for me, if I hadn’t been worried about it being a 3rd in a series. It did work as a stand-alone too!

Will buzz around and use lower amazon reviewer number on release date!

Shed No Tears
A Novel
by Caz Frear
HarperCollins Publishers
You Like Them You Are Auto-Approved
Harper
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 01 Dec 2020 | Archive Date 26 Jan 2021

This is an author I have not read before. This book is the third in a series, but I read it as a stand-alone and didn't miss the backstory too much. I do believe I will read the first two though, because some of the other reviewers say the first two are even better! I will recommend this for police procedural fans. Great Book! Thanks to HarperCollins Publishers and NetGalley for this Mystery& Thriller ARC. 5 star

Atonement seems to sit front and center. It begs for attention. We constantly try to feed the sins of the past. But is it ever enough? That, dear humans, would be a solid no.........

Shed No Tears brings together a familiar crew. There's an abominable heatwave leaning heavily in Cambridgeshire and the officers in the local police department are making every effort to rise above it. DC Cat Kinsella, DS Luigi Parnell, and DCI Kate Steele are facing a hot case that is giving competition to the air con working overtime just like them.

The body of a woman missing for over six years has just been found. Seems like every indication that this is another victim of "The Roommate" murders. Said murderer, Christopher Masters, was charged with a string of murders of young women and committed to prison some time back. Before he could serve out his term, he was brutally killed by a fellow inmate in prison. Unfortunately,the dead don't speak.

But DC Cat Kinsella thinks that the physical clues may just speak for this woman, Holly Kemp. Add to that, there's an eye witness who swears that she saw Holly speaking to Masters in the doorway of his condo six years ago. Coincidence, fact, or a missighting?

Caz Frear has created a complicated, multi-faceted, in-your-face-when-necessary character in DC Cat Kinsella. Cat stands solid as a police officer, but her father's dubious past can play havoc with Cat's present. She is noted for keeping the lid on things........even in regard to her relationship with Irishman Aiden Doyle. (Head's Up: No sloppy sweet love affair happenin' here, folks.)

Shed No Tears is the third book in this series. Run, don't walk, and dive in. Frear's writing style is highly above the average mystery bears out there. The dialogue between her officers is filled with humor and catchy phrases. There are moments of laugh out loud banter and wit that offset the heaviness of the crimes that they are dealing with. Cat says in passing about one of their new recruits: "Our current slab of testosterone."

All this is mixed within a superbly written crime story that simmers with intelligence and well thought out in's and out's. Give me substance in my mysteries. Caz Frear delivers.

I received a copy of Shed No Tears through NetGalley for an honest opinion. My thanks to Harper Collins Publishing and to the talented Caz Frear for the opportunity.

When the remains of young woman who has been missing for six years are found in a field hours from London, Detective Constable Cat Kinsella and her partner Luigi Parnell begin an investigation that will hit a little to close to home.

Holly Kemp was believed to be the last victim of serial killer Christoper Masters. But Holly was shot in the head and her body left hours from his other victims. The case is reopened and all the old witnesses are questioned again. But Cat has her doubts about the main witness who ties Holly to the serial killer. The more Cat digs, the more inconsistencies she and her partner find. The evidence starts to point to a powerful gangster and the spotlight turns on an officer who is a rising star of the Metropolitan Police.

Even though this is is the third book in the series, it could be read as a stand alone. There are references to the first two books but not knowing the full backstory doesn’t take away from this solid police procedural. The pacing is quick and the investigation flows along at a good clip. Cat is a witty and determined detective but she’s not perfect and has family secrets.

Perfect for fans of police procedurals.

Three books in, this remains my favorite current procedural series.

Frear has an impressive way of keeping her story compelling, her characters empathetic, but while still deftly employing a lighter touch than often seen in the genre. The cases feel riveting, important, and meaningful, but avoid the kind of soul crushing sadness often seen in murder mysteries.

Cat Kinsella is about as terrific a heroine as you can get. Both heroic and relatable, Cat’s personal reckonings are as earnest and endearing as her detective work is entertaining and exceptional. And Steele and Parnell remain among literatures best secondary players.

And oh what a glorious bomb Frear has dropped at the close of this novel. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Cat.

First of all, this is one of my favorite series of the last couple of years. While this entry can be read as a standalone, I highly suggest you go back to the beginning if you haven't already read the first two in the series--simply because they're so very good.

This is another strong entry in the series. Cat is a very conflicted protagonist who is incredibly torn between her personal and professional lives. In this story, the case surrounds the found body of a woman assumed to have been the last victim of a captured (and now dead) serial killer. However, things don't add up and the evidence seems to point to a different killer altogether. While this novel does not heavily implicate Cat's family, there is a small role her father plays in the investigation.

While I think this is a very good novel and that it contains a well-plotted mystery, I didn't find it to be quite up to the (very high) standards of the last two. That might have been because less of her personal life was intertwined into the case she was solving and that's one of the things I like best in these books. Actually, the 2nd novel ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, and I was anxious to see how that would continue to unfold; however, it was resolved (to some degree) between the two books, which was a little disappointing. I do suspect, though, we're not done with that story line and it will come back in future installments. And I should note that had I not loved the first two novels so much, I probably would have no complaints about this one.

Overall, I highly recommend this series. One thing Frear does very well is to make the line between good and bad awfully fluid. I found myself largely sympathizing with the "bad guy" in this one, even as I knew the actions were wrong--even abhorrent. And of course that's the attraction in Cat as well; she straddles a blurry line and shows us how, as she claims, everyone has breaking point that will make us do bad things. I am already looking forward to the 4th entry in this series.

My aversion to US policing and firm belief in the necessity of defunding and abolition nonwithstanding, I am still a big softie for a detective novel, the ones that take place in the UK especially because the Met is not <i>as</i> keen on the whole racist brutality angle. Cat and Lu have found the remains of a young woman thought to be the final victim of a serial murderer, but nothing - from the state of her body to the way she was killed to the place she was left - fits with that killer's profile. So unspools another classic procedural - will there be shady witnesses and ambitious DIs and new suspects? Will there be bad guys that look completely guilty until the moment they produce ironclad alibis? Tense interrogations? Red herrings and startling new evidence and shocking revelations? Will it be interwoven with drama about Cat's gangster father and Irish boyfriend (thankfully not a whole lot on that angle, because I often weary of Cat's justifications of how she needs to stay in contact with the family she seems to absolutely loathe, and why she has to date this poor guy given said horrible family's tangential involvement in his sister's murder, all of which she's keeping secret from the dude). Yes on all counts! Will it be satisfying and cozily predictable, like coffee in your favorite mug or your spot on the couch that's shaped just like you because you've been quarantined for four months? Yes again.