The Unemployed Detective.

Hi, penandsword here.

I kinda feel like the whole 'reclusive detective' trope is overused, but this is a nice take on it! Just a few things I didn't like:

I understand that the point of this character is to be extremely negative, but it feels kind of forced at certain points. Also, you use a lot of words with not a lot of action, especially towards the middle. Plus, there were some technical errors, typos and such.

Other than that, an interesting first chapter with vivid descriptions and a fascinatingly dark main character.

-Pen

Hey, Aleta here for a review.

Corrections
~
The screen of her iPhone was host to 6 new messages,
Spell six out.

Deciding to confront the text’s

Text's? You only use that with phrases such as won't, can't, don't, ain't. It is simply texts.

“Is everything ok here Paul?” she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder as she moved by.

Okay is more appropriate.

“I’m glad you could assist us with this investigation”.
You seem to have a problem with dialogue. The period goes inside of the dialogue.

“Oh for Christ’s sake”
Correction: "Oh, for Christ's sake!"

“I can show her to the body if you’d like to go for your break”.
Fix dialogue.

"Well”
Add a comma after well.

“Fine” Amanda sighed,
Same here.





Observations
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‘Welcome’ mat of lies.
What's the need for this here? I forgot what those ' things are, although I don't really think you need to put it on there. You could just simply state the welcome mat.

So Nicola goes to another residence, hears screaming, and just walks off and does nothing about it when she is there? You explained her as indifferent, unconcerned. Wouldn't the average human be concerned after hearing screaming from a residence nearby them? I don't think it's good of her to just shrug it off, considering that someone could be killed right there at the spot and she just stands there and listens.

‘buzzes’,
What's up with the use of the '? You don't need it.

Again, five minutes later, her phone buzzed on the worktop, and again, she ignored it.

After five subsequent ‘buzzes’, Nicola decided to address them, if only to suppress the irritating notifications.

Five and five right next to each other in the same sentence. I would consider taking out the five buzzes part completely and just say after a subsequent amount of buzzes...

There were several occasions where she was almost seduced by the possibility of peace and quiet, to reveal the husband’s affair.

Husband's affair? You give no prologue to this and you suddenly add this in. Where did she get this information from?

Hailing a taxi from the street below her flat, she traveled to the train station.

The reader knows she is traveling. No need to restate it. Here's something you could do: Nicola hailed a taxi from the street below her flat. She crossed her arms against her chest in annoyed exasperation from the biting chill of ____(please name setting/town here). "To the train station, please." The man grunted in response. Huh! I didn't know he was a primate.

(Although this is only a suggestion, you can keep it the way it is)

~

Overall

You have a problem with dialogue. You need to add a period, question, or exclamation at the end of the dialogue always and you aren't doing that. Nicola had no character definition whatsoever and she seems like a pretty dull, boring character and the plot I found meh which is why I did not read to the end.

Hope I helped!