Maeve Kerrigan · #3
The Last Girl
Vast wealth offers London defense attorney Philip Kennford a lot of things: a gorgeous house with a pool in the backyard, connections in the top echelons of society, a wardrobe worthy of Milan runways. But his money doesn't provide a happy marriage, or good relationships with his twin daughters…and it does nothing to protect his family when someone brutally murders his wife and daughter in their own home.
When Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan arrives at the scene, the two survivors—Philip and his second favorite daughter, Lydia—both claim to have seen nothing, but it's clear right away that this is an unhappy family accustomed to keeping secrets. Maeve soon finds herself entangled in a case with a thousand leads that all seem to point nowhere, and it doesn't help that her boss, whom she trusts more than almost anyone, is starting to make decisions that Maeve finds questionable at best.
In The Last Girl, Jane Casey once again demonstrates her ability to write vivid, three-dimensional characters and spin a gripping, unpredictable mystery.
The series
In a city that never truly sleeps—where justice is messy and violence whispers from behind closed doors—the Maeve Kerrigan series carves out its own dark corner of the crime fiction world. With an unflinching eye for detail and a deep psychological undercurrent, these novels follow a young detective who must navigate not only the brutal crimes of London’s underbelly, but the quieter, more insidious dangers that come from within the very system meant to uphold the law.
Read full series description
The series begins in the early days of Maeve’s career, but it never indulges in tidy origin stories or quick moral resolutions. Instead, each installment peels back another layer—of Maeve, of her colleagues, of the city itself. The procedural framework is there, yes: evidence, suspects, high-stakes chases. But what lingers are the silences between the interviews, the tension in the squad room, the moments where instinct and ethics collide.
Through slow-burning suspense and sharp character work, the books explore themes of power, vulnerability, and the cost of ambition. Kerrigan herself is more than a detective—she’s a woman constantly negotiating her place in a world that underestimates her, a world that expects her to be both tough and soft, relentless and restrained. That quiet duality pulses through every case she takes on, whether she’s confronting serial killers, corruption, or the ghosts of her own past.
The atmosphere is tense, urban, and deeply human—less about solving the mystery and more about why people commit the acts they do. It's this emotional depth, paired with the intricacy of the investigations, that has earned the series a devoted following among readers of psychological thrillers and police procedurals alike.
For those drawn to stories where justice comes at a cost, and where the truth is rarely black and white, this is a series that doesn’t just ask who did it—but what it means when they do.
#0.5 · 2013Left for Dead 
#1 · 2010The Burning 
#2 · 2011The Reckoning 
#3 · 2012The Last Girl 
#4 · 2014The Stranger You Know 
#5 · 2014The Kill 
#6 · 2015After the Fire 
#7 · 2017Let the Dead Speak 
#7.5 · 2018One in Custody 
#8 · 2019Cruel Acts 
#8.5 · 2019Love Lies Bleeding 
#8.6 · 2020Silent Kill 
#9 · 2020The Cutting Place 
#10 · 2023The Close 
#11 · 2024A Stranger in the Family 
#12 · 2025The Secret Room 
#13 · 2027The Silent Neighbour Be the first reviewer
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