The First Cut is the Deepest is the seventh in Edwards' Harry Devlin series, and though it does contain some spoilers for earlier books in the series, there is nothing that will confuse you about its storyline. Devlin has gotten in up to his neck in a compulsive affair with a woman who happens to be married to a big time criminal. Despite his very reasonable fear of Casper May, he still finds himself going out on a stormy night for a rendezvous with Casper's wife Juliet at a cottage her secretary is graciously letting them use. Yes, it's a bad idea. A couple of catastrophes happen immediately, one of which is murder. I'll leave the subsequent plot developments for you to discover yourself. The whodunit aspect of the book was sufficiently complex to keep me guessing--and I made quite a few wrong guesses, which is always good. What I particularly enjoyed about the novel, though, was Edwards' use of his own background (and I believe, actually, foreground) as a solicitor to create an interesting milieu. Devlin has few illusions about the law, and those few he may still cherish are rapidly punctured by one of the various other lawyers who populate this book. He also has few illusions about himself-- he's self-deprecating about his lawyerly skills, and puts down his penchant for crime-solving to being a bit of a nosey parker. My full blog review is here.
