Review: Dissecting Meredith (On Call Series Book 6) by Freya Barker

Dissecting Meredith by Freya Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Coroner and The Detective

I’d probably give this book 4.5 ⭐️ if I could.

This is the 6th book in a series of standalone novels about a group of colleagues in the police and fire departments in Durango. You do not need to read the other books in the series to enjoy this one, but reading them first will make reading this novel a richer experience.

Meredith is the coroner, but she’s also a fully trained and experienced forensic pathologist. She takes great pride in her work and is ambitious for her department and her team rather than for herself. She was widowed a long time ago and hasn’t had a serious relationship since. She is intelligent, determined and hard-working. She is content with who she is and how her life is.

Jay is a newly qualified detective. He was happy being a police officer and working the community, helping people but when he met Meredith his buried ambition came back to life. He wanted to impress her so started studying for his detective exams. He comes from a background of wealth and privilege but he left that behind when he chose not to follow his family footsteps and become a cop instead. He is self contained and doesn’t share himself and his emotions easily. Most people in Durango only know him superficially.

Since becoming a detective Jay has been biding his time to ask Meredith out on a date but before he has a chance a case they are working on keeps throwing them together and does some of his work for him. Whilst trying to establish a relationship Jay and Meredith work with the rest of the team to find out what has been happening with body parts turning up around the city.

I enjoyed this book a lot. There is much to like about Meredith and Jay, both individually and as a couple. I loved how they took their time building up their relationship, getting to know each other better. I also loved that their animals were involved in their relationship, with Jay having to gain the trust of Meredith’s big dog and tiny kitten. They have various problems to work through but they manage to work through them with intelligence and compassion.

At the same time as showing how the relationship was building was an interesting case that involved several agencies as well as Durango PD and the Coroner’s office. I enjoyed the suspense aspect of this book as much as the relationship one. There were lots of strands to the investigation and I didn’t know which one was going to be tugged on next to get to the next clue.

This book was satisfying on all levels and I’m sad this appears to be the last in the series, for now, but I hope it will come back at some point because all the books were a great read.

Note: Since writing this review the author shared a publishing date for the next book in the series, due out on 14th September 2021, Watching Trin. YAAAAY!! 

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