What I loved most about THE OPPOSITE OF MURDER is how Sophie Hannah hid the fact that it is another installment in her exemplary series featuring Sergeant Charlie Zailer, Detective Constable Simon Waterhouse, and their entire team that have spearheaded so many great novels.

The focus here is on Jemma Stelling. What makes Jemma so intriguing is that she is either completely naïve and innocent or a criminal mastermind. The answer will not be known until the very end of the book. Along the way, chapters are told from the perspectives of different characters, keeping you on your guard and in the dark until the perfect moment when Hannah reveals everything.

"THE OPPOSITE OF MURDER has everything a mystery reader could possibly want in a complex and intelligent plot, along with characters who keep the proceedings lively throughout."

Jemma walks into Zailer and Waterhouse’s precinct to confess to a murder that hasn’t happened yet. She has been consumed with her stepmother, Marianne Upton, a rather lecherous character who many readers may actually root for to die. However, the police cannot hold Jemma for a deed that she only thought about but has not acted on. That is, until Marianne turns up very much dead.

Zailer and her colleagues are not sure how to proceed and decide to make a run at Jemma, who is still at the precinct, allegedly providing an alibi. It is only when Waterhouse steps into the situation that things begin to slowly come together, and the actual murderer becomes apparent (at least to him).

Along the way, readers will be taken down a most interesting road as it becomes nearly impossible to determine what Jemma’s intentions are. At this quandary point, the comment is made that this is not an act of murder, but rather the opposite of murder. It is immensely entertaining and equally confounding to follow along with this storyline, which is made all the more perplexing when Waterhouse announces that he has it all figured out.

A series of diary entries from the past are also introduced throughout the text, showing that there may have been more than one occasion for Marianne to be murdered. The list of suspects increases as we read along, and it becomes quite the murderous joyride before the final reveal. 

THE OPPOSITE OF MURDER has everything a mystery reader could possibly want in a complex and intelligent plot, along with characters who keep the proceedings lively throughout. It also serves as a strong reminder of why Sophie Hannah was brought on to continue Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot series, as she clearly has a firm grasp of what a classic murder mystery is all about.