‘Tread Softly’ is the third book in the Beatrice Stubbs series that currently stands at fourteen books in all. Each book can be read as a standalone novel but each has Beatrice Stubbs, a veteran Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police at its heart. Beatrice looks at the world differently from most people. She’s a bi-polar, metaphor-mixing, deeply insightful, introverted, suicide survivor with a strong sense of personal responsibility for solving the crimes she investigates.

I met her in ‘Behind Closed Doors’, set mostly in Switzerland, which was one of the best books I’ve read for capturing how international teams really work. Then I read ‘Raw Material‘, set mostly in Wales, which was a much more intimate book, bringing me into Beatrice’s personal life while solving a complicated mystery.

‘Raw Material‘ ended with Beatrice feeling that she was not up to her job and that her poor judgement had placed other people at risk. ‘Tread Softly’ finds her on a sabbatical from the Metropolitan Police while she considers whether or not to retire. 

Beatrice is taking things easy in northern Spain, travelling alone, taking in the art at the Guggenheim and sampling the great food and distinctive wines of the Basque country. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, just about everything. It isn’t long before Beatrice lets herself be pulled in to support an investigative journalist intent on uncovering a scandal that has already cost at least two lives and which soon puts both of them at risk.

‘Tread Softly’ has many of the strengths of its predecessors: a well-drawn and diverse set of strong female characters drive the plot, the mystery is complicated, plausible and deeply rooted in the history and culture of the region, the violence and sense of threat feels real without becoming exploitative and Beatrice remains a intriguing mix of strength and fragility, energy and depression.

The main baddy in the book is charismatic, intelligent, cultured and fundamentally despicable. I thought he was a wonderful creation. Only his wife eclipsed him with her ruthlessly selfish pragmatism.

I liked that Beatrice wasn’t the main driver of the action in this book. Her role was meant to be that of an advisor and she mostly sticks to it, at least until she’s forced to act to protect herself and others. The main driver of the action is Anna, an Irish/Portugese investigative journalist. She is a powerhouse who refuses to acknowledge her own vulnerability and relentlessly chases her story.

I enjoyed the characters as much as the plot and the strong sense of place. I liked that J J Marsh gave each of the strong women in this book the space to become people rather than plot devices. 

I smiled at the way Beatrice ended up involving three British soldiers that she met by chance. In theory, it was a bit of a stretch but actually, given Beatrice’s character and slightly chaotic way of working, it felt quite natural.

I think my favourite moment of the book was when Beatrice showed a flash of steel combined with cold-blooded cunning in the way she arranged the doom of someone who had betrayed her and her friends. It showed a side of her that she is careful to keep hidden but which is an essential part of her personality.

I’m hooked on this series now. I’ll be continuing to follow Beatrice as she unravels mysteries across Europe.

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