The Jigsaw Man

November 1, 2020
In her first thriller, London criminal solicitor Matheson introduces a startlingly fresh and compelling sleuth, Detective Inspector Anjelica Henley, who, at the outset, wonders "not for the first time, what it said about her that she was happier dealing with rapists and murderers than her own husband." Henley, Salim Ramouter, the rookie she resents being saddled with, Dr. Linh Choi, and many others connected to an expertly depicted southeast London neighborhood along the Thames are vital characters of color with complex and resonant back stories. Paul Olivier, aka the Jigsaw Man, an incarcerated, revengeful, disturbingly self-possessed and charismatic serial killer who dismembered his victims, taunts Henley as a copycat serial killer rampages on what was his turf. Matheson's insights into both the procedures and the stress at the underfunded Serial Crime Unit, the extreme pressures a Black woman detective inspector faces, various psychological maladies, and sexual passion and perversion stoke a many-faceted, at times grotesque, nonetheless sensitive, witty, and heart-pounding work of suspense. The perfectly orchestrated cliffhanger ending primes readers for the next installment in Matheson's promising, optioned-for-TV Henley series.

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January 4, 2021
Det. Insp. Anjelica Henley, the protagonist of British author Matheson’s so-so debut, still has the scars from where Peter Olivier, known as the Jigsaw Killer for dismembering his victims and leaving a crescent and double cross carved on their bodies, stabbed her at the time she arrested him. Now, two and a half years later, three apparently unconnected people turn up murdered in London, their limbs and heads severed, and Olivier’s signature markings cut into their flesh. Since Olivier was convicted, he has been serving multiple life sentences in a prison. After Henley’s assigned to the new cases, despite her prior traumatic experience, she interviews Olivier, which gives the murderer the chance to play mind games with her. Meanwhile, Henley’s marriage is imperiled by her devotion to her job and her husband’s suspicions that she’s being unfaithful with her boss. The familiar plot builds to a predictable conclusion. Fans of Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter novels will have seen this all before. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.).