Catch a Break feels like a small, sharply observed mystery — and I mean that as praise.

When a record dealer is found dead, DI Louisa Moss is left with an unusual combination of leads: a complicated personal history, a trail of unpaid bills, a planning dispute, and a dog who may be the only living witness. It’s an intriguing setup, rooted less in spectacle and more in the quiet accumulation of detail.

What struck me most about this installment is its focus on the ordinary pressures that shape a life. Debt, bureaucracy, strained relationships — these are not dramatic in themselves, but Jones uses them effectively to build a portrait of a man whose life had slowly narrowed. The mystery grows not from a single explosive secret, but from a series of unresolved tensions.

Louisa Moss remains a steady, compassionate presence. She approaches the case without judgement, piecing together a life from fragments others might dismiss. Even in a shorter format, her character never feels rushed or reduced — a testament to how comfortably she now inhabits the series.

The inclusion of a dog as the only witness is handled with restraint, never tipping into gimmickry. Instead, it adds a quiet note of loneliness to the case, reinforcing the sense that this is a story about someone who may have slipped out of view long before his death.

At just 75 pages, Catch a Break is concise, controlled, and surprisingly affecting. It rounds out The Louisa Moss Mysteries with confidence, proving that a mystery doesn’t need scale to carry weight — only attention, empathy, and care.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read my full Goodreads review here.