Rating: 4/5
Review:
A decent police thriller
This is an enjoyable police procedural, although I did have my reservations about it.
Set in and around Derby, the story concerns two series of events, the bodies of homeless alcoholics turning up in unusual circumstances and the disappearance of college students, both of which are investigated by Inspector Brook. Brook, naturally, has a Troubled Personal Life and difficult relationships with colleagues and authority although this isn't too badly overdone. The book is well written in readable, unintrusive prose, dialogue and characters are by and large believable and the story is well told.
I have two main reservations. Firstly, at 530 pages the book is too long. I don't mind a long book provided there is a lot to fill it, but I felt there wasn't a real sense of place generated and some rather clumsy speechifying rather than the subtle emergence on important issues so eventually things dragged a little and some editing would have improved this a lot. Secondly, the climax and explanations were quite remarkably implausible and in the end I found it just silly.
However, the book did keep me reading to the end and this and the writing itself would make three stars very churlish. It's a decent thriller if you are prepared to stretch your ability to suspend disbelief.
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