Clean Break

Written by Val McDermid

Narrated by Chloe Massey

English kick-boxer and Rudyard Kipling fan Kate Brannigan appears in her fourth adventure, chasing down art thieves in Italy while unravelling a nasty case of product tampering in her homeland. When a precious Monet painting is nicked from a posh British estate where she arranged the security, the tough-talking PI is right on the job to get it back. Kate Brannigan goes head to head with organized crime when a routine industrial case starts leaving a trail of bodies across the northwest, forcing Kate to confront hard truths in her own life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781501990168

Val McDermid

VAL McDERMID is the internationally bestselling author of more than twenty crime novels. She has won the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; her novels have been selected as New York Times Notable Books and have been Edgar Award finalists. She was the 2010 recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Crime Writing. More than 10 million copies of her books have been sold around the world. She lives in the north of England. Visit her website at www.valmcdermid.com.

Reviews for Clean Break

[eyejaybee · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The fourth instalment in Val McDermid’s series featuring Kate Brannigan maintains the high standards of its predecessors. Kate, the engagingly self-reliant private investigator based in Manchester, is summoned to the stately home of a client for whom her firm had installed a state of the art security system. Embarrassingly, the home has been burgled and the prize possession, a Monet, has been stolen. Kate’s investigations reveal that there have been several similar burglaries around the country, and in each one just a single item, invariably the most valuable, has been taken. CCTV footage from one of the raids shows the burglars breaking in, heading straight for the one item, removing it and then escaping, all within a minute of breaching the property.Meanwhile, Kate finds herself taken on by a new client. The perpetually bed tempered Graham Kerr believes that his company, which produces domestic cleaning fluids, is being blackmailed through targeted product tampering, which has already apparently left one customer dead from cyanide poisoning. Surly to bed, and surly to rise, Kerr seems to blame Kate for everything that has happened, overlooking the fact that she was only retained after the customer’s death.Over the series McDermid has amassed an impressive supporting cast for Kate. In addition to her lover, music journalist Richard Barclay, there are an assortment of local senior police officer (some helpful, others less so), a daunting defence solicitor, and her best friend Alex, an investigative journalist (probably based upon McDermid’s own past working on the Northern crime desk at The Guardian). All of them become involved to a greater or lesser degree as Kate’s investigations lead her halfway across Europe.McDermid’s great skill is to make her plots, and her characters’ actions and reactions, entirely plausible. Kate is not a superhero, and is as fallible at times as everyone else, occasionally coming to rue her own impetuosity. The two wholly separate plots are seamlessly interlaced throughout the book, and the story zips along with great pace.

[ken5me5old5mate · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was written in 2003, that’s just 2 years after Steve Jobs introduced the iPod and 4 years before he unveiled the first iPhone. There’s quite a lot of tech involved in the telling of this story and it’s cutting edge for 2003, in fact it’s far fetched for 2003, so it makes for lame reading in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic.

Having said that I cannot give a lower rating because of that, it’s just if you were thinking of reading it I’d say don’t because it will irk you.

As for the story and characters, they are also 2003 so I am going to try and channel myself from 17 years ago.

The story is not fast paced but wide ranging in its scope. I like how it was slick in some places but naive in others. I would not have read this book 17 years ago because at the time I was driving 110kms per day to work and back so I would have been listening to this on my car stereo (after ripping the CDs from the library and putting the mp3s on an SD Card. Ha!

I would have loved it, not because it is gripping or tense or particularly well written, but because it demands nothing of you, it is entertainment for anyone who likes crime/detective novels. Just that.

[brokentune · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

2.5*

Fun read but not as sophisticated as some of her other books.

[sail7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Read this straight through while flying and hanging out in the airport. The heroine is laugh out loud funny in the way she states things sometimes, and the plot(s) - 2 crimes to solve at once are not the typical murder mystery fare. Good distraction while traveling.

[cathyskye · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Protagonist: PI Kate BranniganSetting: Manchester, England and a small tour of EuropeSeries: #4First Line: I don't know much about art, but I know what I don't like.Kate discovers that a security system she developed for a local castle has been breached and a valuable Monet stolen. Ingeniously tracking the thieves to Italy, she winds up taking on some world-class bad guys. At the same time, she is involved in a case of suspected industrial sabotage that has turned deadly.This is one of my favorite series. I enjoy reading about Kate, and I like her "voice". Art theft is another favorite as well, so for the most part I really liked this book--except for the bit where Kate's boyfriend has a cris d'ego. I'm going to hate to see the end of this series, and it's looming in my headlights.

[tripleblessings_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

P.I. Kate Brannigan is on the case when a painting is stolen from an estate. The chase for stolen art becomes dangerous, and a second case of a saboteur putting poison into cleaning solutions causes a string of deaths. Average.

[loma_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Good natured, fast-paced mystery which made me laugh out loud.