This fast-moving thriller involves murder, religious obsession, fine art, jazz, sex, drug smuggling, prostitution, and the tabloid press. When a playboy and art collector is found dead, ex-DCI Jack suspects foul play. But few of the people involved are what they seem and the crime can't be solved until all of the multiple interconnections have been unravelled.
It's told from the multiple perspectives of many of the people involved, jumping backwards and forwards in time in a no-frills style and short chapters which really kept the pace up; I read it in a couple of evenings. It has all the classic ingredients of the genre and some bonus features. I particularly liked the fact the the investigator-protagonist was not an alcoholic loner but a happily married man with a son: his family problems stemmed from his wife's terminal illness and made him seem thoroughly human as a result. I also loved the vivid and realistic description of the disposal of a body: "She had to find the strength to get the body into the car. She had to! Her Lexus was parked outside the kitchen; she started dragging the body again. It took her another half-an-hour to reach the kitchen door. She sat down at the kitchen table to rest and thought how she could lift him into the car. The boot was high. It was impossible!"
Other great moments included:
- "If Alan was a plant, he’d be ivy, Jack thought. Strangling everyone with ambitious tenacity." (Ch 1)
- "a face so crumpled it looked as if people had been drying their hands on it." (Ch 3)
- "watching the greedy sea gobbling up the shore" (Ch 6)
- "Had men falling at my feet all the time. Most of them were drunk, of course." (Ch 6)
Great fun to read.
March 2021
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This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling and The Kids of God |
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