Denver Brady claims to be the greatest serial killer of all time. No one has ever heard of him so perhaps he has a point. But he has put a finger into the limelight with the publication of his book “How To Get Away With Murder” – part biography, part self-help manual for aspiring serial killers.

DI Samantha Hansen is under pressure to return to work after being on leave due to… well, her work, but it takes the discovery of the dead body of a teenage girl, laid out under a tree exactly as in the book – even to the initialled love-heart carved into the trunk – to spur her back into action. Tasked with tracking down Brady, it soon becomes clear that there is more to the book than meets the eye. Is it the work of a fantasist or of a serial killer desperate for attention? Or is it something altogether different?

Another name-check for Stockport Noir. Rebecca Philipson was on the New Authors panel, and she was an author so new, her book wasn’t out yet. Well, it is now, and here it is, out today – Thursday 12^th March in the UK – and, as I’m trying to do with as many SN authors as possible, I thought I’d take a look.

It’s an ambitious debut with a nicely complex and yet extremely followable plot that doesn’t overlook the obvious question – if Denver Brady had kept his serial-killing shenanigans quiet for so long, why has he written a book about them? This is the sort of thing that some writers wouldn’t think about but it’s clear Rebecca has taken care with the plotting here to ensure nobody does anything without a reason.

The book alternates for the most part between Sam’s point of view – her investigations, her personal struggles to cope with being back at work and to work as part of a team (having been used to being the Senior Investigator). Needless to say, her investigations, which are supposed to be confined to the author of the book tend to go a bit rogue. Well, I say “a bit”, it’s a bit more than “a bit” in the final section…

Credit as well for a solution that doesn’t fall (exactly) into the three possibilities that are mentioned a few times, as well as ensuring that Sam’s colleagues aren’t complete idiots. I’m still a bit puzzled as to the speed at which the book was written but I guess it was self-published so maybe he/she was a fast writer…

I don’t think this is really a clued mystery, just so you know, but there are some good twists here. The denouement is not what I expected, but it does give a satisfying conclusion when certainly at points it seemed as if some naughty people would get away with some naughty things.

For the squeamish, I would say that this doesn’t dwell on the details of the crimes. I’m not a big fan of namechecking real crimes and names – see The Mirror Crack’d From Side To Side and The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels – and while it is rather unavoidable in this case, the author does tend to restrict herself to mostly mentioning Bundy and again, with nothing that made me go urgh.

All in all, a really interesting read. I might have preferred more of a wow moment when the identity of the killer was revealed, but nonetheless, a really strong debut and I look forward to what comes next from Rebecca.

How To Get Away With Murder is out today from Bantam in hardback, ebook and audiobook. Many thanks for the review copy via NetGalley.