THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD - Book review

 

This is the fourth – and final – book in Robert Wilson’s Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón detective series set primarily in Seville. The Ignorance of Blood was published in 2009.

It takes place in 2006 when a Russian mafia man is involved in a fatal traffic accident. In his car the police find a bag bulging with euros and video discs – stolen from a mafia gang, apparently.

Falcón is still trying to get to the bottom of a bomb explosion – was it terrorists or some other cause?  He is advised not to obsess about it. There are other cases to investigate: ‘Personal crusades, Javier, are not advisable in police work. Every old people’s home in Spain probably has a retired detective gaping from the windows, his mind still twisted around a missing girl, or a poor bludgeoned boy. Don’t go there. Nobody expects it of you’ (p41).

The Russian villains are particularly unpleasant – and seem to be competing gangs. ‘The veneer, though, was only an expensive suit thick, as Viktor Belenki was a violent brute with access to a rage so incandescent that even Revnik’s most psychopathic henchmen were afraid of him’ (p45).

The video discs implicate a number of very important individuals in the city and elsewhere; there are connections to shady constructors and financiers. Two mafia gangs want those discs.

Falcón covers a lot of familiar ground, including Atocha rail station, where three bombs were exploded on March 11, 2004; other bombs exploded on four trains; those responsible were members of al-Qaeda; over 190 people were killed and over 2,000 injured. (I recall it well; we were living in Spain at the time). However, the bomb explosion Falcón is investigating is not believed to be connected to that atrocity.

Still topical now, Falcón is faced with individuals being radicalised by Islamists. ‘Radical Islam was not something you changed your mind about. Once admitted to the close fraternity and their secrets there was no walking away. They wouldn’t let you’ (p81). Indeed, anyone joining becomes a ‘lost soul, walking a world of death, destruction and martyrdom’ (p86).

Falcón is drawn into the turf war between Russian factions when Dario, the son of Consuelo, his lover, is kidnapped. Are the kidnappers Russian or Islamists?

Along the way, he is faced with an imprisoned judge, a female sculptor in a bikini, and a Moroccan friend engaged in spying on an Islamist group for the Spanish security service. There are violent deaths, gruesome deaths, and a convoluted mystery that must be solved in Morocco.

Falcón has previously suffered from a breakdown, but now he is stressed and stretched to the point where not only is his job at risk, but also his life. Some chapters end with a nail-biting cliff-hanger.

The descriptions of Seville, the characters and the emotions are well delineated with powerful writing.

Although there are references to previous Falcón novels, the book can be read as a standalone. However, the Falcón books in order are: The Hidden Assassins, The Blind Man of Seville, The Silent and the Damned and The Ignorance of Blood.

DEADLY GAME - Book review

 

Michael Caine’s debut novel Deadly Game (2023) is a good solid thriller.

DCI Harry Turner is a tough nut who doesn’t suffer fools at all, let alone gladly. ‘Harry hated the phrase “old-school copper” – especially when applied to him, as it often was round the Met. Yes, he liked to get the job done. Yes, he could throw a punch as well as take one. And no, he didn’t think police officers were social workers or local politicians. Their job was law enforcement: pure and simple. Not therapy’ (p26). He was ex-Army, ex-SAS and served in Helmand, Columbia, Georgia and Myanmar – until a sports knee injury got him – ‘It was a tackle that got me, not the Taliban’ (p28). After that, he joined the Met.

Harry joined an elite team in department SO22, headed up by DCS Robinson – a team created because the ‘Met had lost its balls, lost its focus and was too busy covering its arse to make the calls that get proper bad guys behind bars’ (p34).

Then, one day, on Harry’s doorstep, so to speak, a metal box of radioactive material is found at a dump in Stepney, East London. Unfortunately, before the police can arrive, it goes missing. Harry and his team (DI John Williams, Inspector Carol Walker, and Sergeant Iris Davies) are tasked with finding the missing uranium before it gets into the wrong hands.

It seems that an unsavoury criminal gang is involved, and far-right skinheads, and also an aristocratic art Dealer, Julian Smythe and oligarch Vladimir Voldrev; these latter two are quite creepy, each confronted in their own personal fiefdom/lair.

Throughout, whenever Harry is speaking – or thinking – I tend to hear Michael Caine’s voice; the writing and characterisation is that consistent. ‘I think it’s time to prick this prick’s bubble... I don’t believe in ghosts myself. Personally, I believe in crooks and the way they terrorise people. It’s not magic. It’s the oldest trick in history, and it’s always the poorest that get ripped off most’ (p145).

There are deaths along the way, and a shocking explosion, as the team seems to be getting close to their goal. The pace rarely lets up, the pages keep turning, and the denouement contains a neat twist.

Perhaps the swearing could have been reduced by a third - most is apt, in character, but sometimes it seems gratuitous.

I’d be happy to make the acquaintance of Harry Turner again.

DANGEROUS DAVIES AND THE LONELY HEART - Book review

 

Leslie Thomas’s fourth Dangerous Davies title Dangerous Davies and the Lonely Heart was published 1999.

Davies is still living in the same boarding house, his estranged wife in a separate room, his lugubrious pal Mod in another. Davies has been retired from the police force and has decided to try his hand at private investigating. His attention is drawn to the multiple murders of women who have answered lonely hearts advertisements. He has also taken on the case of a missing young girl student (Anna Beauchamp) and a psychologist (Carl Swanee) that might involve a secret worth millions of pounds.

Yet again Thomas has peopled his book with droll, witty, outrageous and mysterious characters, including a gypsy, an overweight hairdresser, and a policeman who gets nosebleeds if he goes upstairs. He also displays his gift for short visual description:

‘He always found tombs interesting… It was like walking through a small shut town. There were angels, too, standing more in hope than in help, their wings white with bird droppings, their mouths half-open, everlastingly lost for words’ (p113). And: ‘… her flowered summer dress like a moving rockery’ (p118).

One of the murdered women left a very bright young child, who they called Harold; Davies meets him with a social worker. ‘They sat on some bleak chairs. Harold’s feet did not reach the ground’ (p132). The scenes with young Harold are heartfelt and one wonders if Thomas thought back to his time as a Barnardo’s boy, when he was motherless, when writing these poignant scenes. Confusingly, one of the owners of the lonely hearts agency (Happy Life Bureau) employing him is also called Harold!

Thomas even imbues inanimate things with character: ‘He had always been reluctant to trust, or risk, the old car on a motorway, but now he quickly found himself on the M4, heading west. The Rover seemed to revel in the new responsibility, snorting like a horse which had not had the luxury of a gallop in a long time’ (p189)

His enquiries take him to the coast of Wales. ‘I was the wildest place that Davies had ever seen. Even the sunshine seemed threatening’ (p217)

One of Davies’s contacts is Sestrina, a beautiful woman who happens to have a painting of a ship – The Lonely Heart – on her wall. In typical private eye fashion, there is a rapport between this pair. ‘She crooked her fingertip and beckoned him. He felt himself groan inwardly, the groan of a man who knew he was in trouble, a groan of pleasure’ (p243). There follows a quite erotic seduction scene with an icy edge to it…

This is perhaps the bloodiest Dangerous Davies outing, and none the worse for that. It was a pleasure from beginning to end.

Editorial comment:

‘feet did not reach the ground’ – I think it should be floor, not ground, but it’s a common mistake to make, perhaps: I feel that ground is ‘outside’ while floor is ‘inside’. Maybe I’m being pedantic!

Two characters called Harold?

Two character names beginning with the same letter: Sophia and Sestrina.

Some writers get fixated on numbers (me included; in years gone by I over-used 17 for some unknown reason!). Thomas here has a thing for forties – ‘The door of number forty-three’ (p126); ‘number forty’ (p162) and ‘Top flat, forty-one’ (p181).

MURDER ON TYNESIDE - Book review

 

Murder on Tyneside is the first in the Agnes Lockwood mystery series by Eileen Thornton; published in 2016. The fourth has recently been released.

Agnes Lockwood, 55, recently widowed from husband Jim almost a year ago, decided to visit the north east and the place of her birth. Her adult life had been hectic and well-travelled and this was the first opportunity she had to visit. While staying at a modern new hotel on the Tyne Quayside, she overheard a couple arguing about some missing jewellery. She thinks nothing of it – until the theft is reported.

A detective chief inspector arrives to head the investigation: Alan Johnson. It transpires that he recognises her from their shared childhood, when she’d gone under the surname Harrison. This instant rapport grows as the investigation ensues; there is another jewellery theft at the hotel. And then, on returning from an evening meal at a nearby restaurant, Agnes and Alan encounter a dead body in the gutter!

The enquiries have transformed into a murder investigation now. And as Agnes was a witness to the body’s discovery, she inveigles her way into the case, despite Alan’s misgivings. ‘But since meeting Agnes, his mind hadn’t been focused on the job. He was enjoying their friendship – perhaps he was enjoying it a little more than he should.’ (p71). Alan’s sergeant , Andrews, is against Agnes’s involvement, and yet he grudgingly admits that her contributions regarding theories about the case are valid, and indeed valued.

As with the majority of amateur sleuth stories, getting the amateur seriously involved in the investigation is quite unrealistic. Yet for decades it has been a common feature of books, TV and movies; so, suspend disbelief and enjoy the tale. Agnes has a habit of not letting Alan get a word in; she argues, ‘I know you aren’t supposed to discuss a crime, case, investigation or whatever it is you want to call it with a member of the public. But I’m not any old member of the public. I was there with you when the body was found!’ (p59).

The problem is that the more that Agnes interferes, the more danger she appears to be in…

Agnes is a fine creation: plucky, crafty, stubborn, inquisitive and meddling while being endearing. I suspect that Alan and Agnes will become an unofficial team for subsequent outings. An interesting cosy mystery with more than a few potential suspects.

Agnes Lockwood has already accrued a devoted readership in the hundreds. The other three books in the series so far are: Death on Tyneside, Vengeance on Tyneside, and A Mystery on Tyneside.

Editorial comment:

Writers are told not to use character names beginning with the same letter; it might confuse the reader. It rarely does, though it depends on the names chosen. Here, we have Agnes, Alan, Alice, Andrews, April, Anderson and Achmed.  One way round this is to build a character list; I always do this – but even I slip up some of the time. In The Magnificent Mendozas I had three characters with names beginning with ‘J’ – granted, they were all Mexican, but that’s no excuse…

PAST TENSE - Book review

PAST TENSE

Lee Child

The 24^th Jack Reacher book, published 2018.  By chance, Reacher winds up in a small town called Laconia in New Hampshire. It was where his father was born. He decided to find the old place.  Not so easy. He gets the help of blonde detective Brenda Amos, but tracking down his father proves difficult.

Unconnected, a young Canadian couple get stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere – well, not too far from Laconia. The couple, Patty and Shorty, are being toyed with by the owners of the motel – but to what end? Was this a variation of the movie Vacancy? No, something else entirely; but just as suspenseful.

Inevitably, the two strands will entwine and when they do, blood will be spilled in true Reacher style.

For a brief while I thought Mr Child was coincidentally using a plot from my latest book Rogue Prey, which is seeking an agent or publisher; but happily there’s only a vague similarity.

This is a slow burn of a book with a satisfying ending.

DANGEROUS IN LOVE - Book review

DANGEROUS IN LOVE

Leslie Thomas

 

Published in 1987, this is Thomas’s second Dangerous Davies novel.  It’s a long time since I read the first, The Last Detective. This one is a joy to read; it’s droll, with slapstick, social commentary, and just plenty of laughs. 

Bound to upset those who are easily offended as it's decidedly non-PC.

Davies is curious about the drowning in the local canal of a familiar homeless person, Lofty Brock. He can’t have been drunk, he was teetotal. Was he pushed? Helping him investigate is Jemma Duval, a beautiful black hymn-singing social worker and Davies’s pal, the workshy philosopher Mod. It’s virtually love at first sight when Davies meets Jemma, who has a missing tooth in the centre of her mouth. ‘Until he had seen that missing tooth he had never realized that something could be so potent, even beautiful, by its absence.’ (p24).

There are two more Dangerous Davies novels in the series.

LOCKDOWN - Book review

LOCKDOWN

Peter May

 

Originally written in 2005 but only published in 2020, this is a crime novel set during a virus pandemic, when the streets of London are in Lockdown under martial law.

Detective Inspector Jack MacNeil has only a day to go in the job, then he retires. He is sent to investigate the death of a child whose bones are discovered during the building of a temporary hospital.

Someone is trying to hamper his investigations, however, and more people are needlessly dying.

Jack’s helper is wheelchair bound Amy, who works on the facial reconstruction of the dead child; she’s a formidable character, someone to root for. She did bring to mind the Silent Witness character Clarissa, who also happens to be a forensic specialist in a wheelchair. 

Grim in parts, as you’d expect.

MAKE DEATH LOVE ME - Book review

MAKE DEATH LOVE ME

Ruth Rendell

 

Published in 1979, this is a typical Ruth Rendell crime novel, concentrating on characters who possess a dubious moral compass.

Alan Groombridge was in a boring job, acting as a small bank’s branch manager, living out a tedious existence with Alison, a wife he didn’t like, and two ungrateful children. So he fantasised about stealing from his bank and living in freedom, even going so far as to take out £3,000 from the safe and sequester (briefly) in his desk. Then, one day, while he is indulging his fantasy, the bank is robbed, and Alan’s assistant Joyce is kidnapped by the robbers. Alan had managed to hide and decides to disappear as well, taking the money from the drawer…

As ever, the plot is cleverly constructed and the gradual disintegration of the robbers, Nigel and Marty, is fascinating.