I have read all the other Jackson Brodie books in this series and I have also read a couple of Kate's standalone novels like Life After Life. I found this book a tad confusing. I don't know whether it carries straight on from the previous book but I spent the first few chapters not knowing what the hell was going on. Once I had centred myself though I really got into the story. I think Jackson was a little bit of an incidental character in this one because he did very little detecting and just seemed to bounce from witnessing one crime to the next with very little putting together of the story.

I thought the trafficking element of the story was very accurate. I also thought that the interconnectedness of the characters was realistic too, that's how predators work, especially 'upstanding citizens' like police officers and judges and MPs etc, they protect each other and think that no one will listen to any victims. For the most part they're right, just look at what happened in Rotherham and other northern towns where victims were reporting crimes repeatedly to an echo chamber of inaction.

I think my favourite character was Crystal. She was very complex and sympathetic and without ruining anything I don't blame her at all for doing what she did. Other than her, Harry was my next favourite.

Anyway I enjoyed this book and I don't think you necessarily need to read the other books in the series to enjoy it.