"Gently Does It" by Alan Hunter

 The book that introduced Chief Inspector George Gently who went on to solve crime in another 46 novels, not to mention a TV drama starring Martin Shaw that ran for eight series. 

Gently, a methodical homicide expert with Central on holiday, clashes with the local police whose attitude is more to gather evidence implicating the prime suspect. Of course the tiny discrepancies in the case are sufficient to locate the real culprit. The problem is not so much whodunnit but how it can be proved.

It was an enjoyable classic of its kind, although the protagonist's tic (he eats so many peppermint creams that one fears for his dental health and imminent diagnosis of diabetes) was a little annoying; I was reminded of Inspector Claud Eustace Teal's obsession with chewing gum in The Saint books by Leslie Charteris. The clash with the local plods is also a trope of this style of fiction.

Very much of its time. Gently is a sexless bachelor who lives with a landlady, several other male characters are rather less sexless bachelors living alone with women who do for them. There is a servant, a classic working class vamp, and a daughter of the rich dead man who speaks with a strong foreign accent despite apparently having lived entirely in England and her brother having no accent at all. Everyone has big lunches: "what does one's figure matter when one is one the wrong side of fifty?" (Ch 11)

Nevertheless, it is thoroughly entertaining.

Selected quotes:

"Susan was a pretty, pert blonde girl with a tilted bra and an accentuated behind. She wore a smile as a natural part of her equipment. She had a snub nose and dimples and a pleased expression, and had a general supercharged look, as though she was liable to burst out of her black dress and stockings into a fierce nudity." (Ch 4)

February 2026; 250 pages

First published in 1955

My paperback edition issued by Robinson in 2010

This review was written by

the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling 

and The Kids of God

"The Groote Park Murders" by Freeman Wills Croft

Who murdered the man whose body was found on a railway line in South Africa? A police procedural set in the 1920s, when forensics was in its infancy, bobbies patrolled their beats and the detectives had to book a car if they needed one. The second half of the novel investigates a linked crime in Scotland whose shocking denouement throws new light of the first murder.

A classic whodunnit from the golden days of detective fiction written by one of the masters of the genre in his time, now sadly unrecognised.

As was common in those days, the Jewish diamond merchant is portrayed with the usual anti-Semitic stereotyping; casual racism is also to be found in the portrayal of the 'negro' witness.

August 2024; 254 pages

Freeman Wills Croft was a prolific author. Aldo reviewed in this blog:

• Crime At Guildford

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Crime at Guildford" by Freeman Wills Croft

 This was a beautifully written police procedural from the days when constables on the beat noticed men walking late at night, and when the police weren't allowed to pay for information! The days when there were butlers and maids and when even policeman were fearful of unemployment.

A jewellery firm is facing going stony (sorry!) broke. Some of the directors arrange a weekend at the chairman's country house near Guildford. On the Sunday morning the company accountant, who was ill the night before, is discovered dead in his bed. The next Monday morning, all the jewels that represent the working stock of the company have vanished from the safe. Are the crimes linked? Whodunnit? And how?

Inspector French plods through the evidence. One by one the suspects are eliminated. Even, after an ingenious twist (I got it!), the truth is revealed, there is still the need for evidence resulting in a chase into Europe. 

Selected quotes:

• "A girl like that has the ear of the boss ... and so she doesn't know her own size." (Ch 11)
• "When you've no job you get into the way of spending as much time everywhere as you can. There's always too much of it." (Ch 18)

Classic crime fun. June 2024; 252 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Triple Tease" by Tony Flood

This is a fast-paced novel. It uses many short paragraphs which often contain only one or two sentences.The short chapters average four pages. This made it very easy to read.

It is also straightforward about the characters and their motivations. This is not an author who believes in 'show don't tell'. Here is his protagonist's self-assessment of her character: "For all my outward display of confidence, I'm riddled with doubt. There are hundreds of insecurities behind my smile. It's almost as if I've got two different personalities." (Ch 3)

At the start, it seemed to be a thriller about vigilante justice but the hero of this section, Katrina, disappears when the book morphed into a police procedural murder mystery. She bounces back in at the end as a sort of deus ex machina to solve the plot. 

I say 'police procedural' but the police seemed to honour the procedure more in the breach than in the observance. The lead detective uses a civilian as an agent provocateur and conspires to cover up a murder. He also makes a verbal slip which suggests he knows the identity of the main murderer so perhaps he is corrupt as well as indifferent to the rules.

The portrayal of misogyny within the CID as evidenced, inter alia, by puerile penis-jokes was probably accurate. Unfortunately, the sexism spilled over into the rest of the book. The attitudes to women in display through most of this novel were old-fashioned to say the least. The wife of the chief copper is a nagging shrew with a sporadic Scottish accent. Other women are victims or sex-workers. There was a focus on their looks: they were either drop-dead gorgeous or grotesque. Katrina, whose physical assets were repeatedly extolled, has her degree and post-graduate study dismissed as "basic qualifications". I found this problematic, especially when the principal crimes involved sex-based violence towards women.

There is an interesting moment of meta-fiction (or was it a commercial break?) when the author appears as a character. 

There is an audacious twist at the end.

March 2024; 282 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"The Cold Dish" by Craig Johnson

When Walt Longmire, the Sheriff of the fictional Absaroka County in Wyoming, USA (well, Americans always say 'London, England' or 'Paris, France'), first hears of a body, he assumes it's a dead sheep. But a boy has been shot, a boy who recently completed a minimal sentence for raping Melissa, a Cheyenne girl. He fears someone is out for revenge. 

I really enjoyed this classic whodunnit. It hit all the tropes of the genre with style and it did more. I felt it brilliantly evoked the neo-wild-west feel of Wyoming's open spaces where everyone has at least one gun and some have many. The sheriff even wins a gun as a prize in a raffle for the library! And the hero-narrator-protagonist is a wonderfully self-deprecating lawman.

There was wise-cracking of the finest calibre with Ruby the lady who runs the office, Vic, Walt's lady deputy, and in particular Henry Standing Bear, his best buddy from school and Vietnam who, as Cheyenne, must be under suspicion. When Walt's ear is frost-bitten the female characters all tell him off for fiddling with the bandage while the men lay bets on whether it will need to be amputated.

The supplementary characters are also brilliant: Lonnie, Melissa's legless father, Vonnie, the poor little rich girl love interest, Dorothy who owns the diner, ex-sheriff Lucian, George Esper who escapes more often than Houdini, and Al the alcoholic.

The dialogue is witty. One of the best bits of the book is the way so many of the characters have their own distinctive way of speaking. Henry never uses a contraction such as won't or didn't or I've. Lonnie ends almost every statement with 'umhmm, yes it is so'. George, who has the excuse of a broken jaw, melds his words: 'othwe montan' = on the mountain, 'yhew kan'tsopthm' = you can't stop them. 

Selected quotes:

• "I looked at her, looking being one of my better law-enforcement techniques." (Ch 1)
• "The fuses of desire are blown black windows, and I'm gone with no pennies to save me." (Ch 1)
• "The mechanics of death ... of taking that final step from being a vertical creature to a horizontal one." (Ch 2)
• "There was more noise from the kitchen, and whistling. Unless I missed my guess, it was Prokofiev's Symphony Number One, sometimes in D, and it was being butchered." (Ch 3). Henry Standing Bear is not just an ex-marine and bar-owner but a cultured gentleman with gourmet tastes and the chef skills to match.
• "I think there was an awful lot about him that I thought I knew, but the truth was that I was just colouring in the missing parts with colors I liked." (Ch 3)
• "My clammy sweatpants were now rising up the crack of my ass." (Ch 4)
• "All the women in town chase after you now. Can you imagine what it would be like if you were good-looking to boot?" (Ch 4)
• "I had been raised as a Methodist where the highest sacrament was the bake sale." (Ch 6)
• "She always called me Trouble, even though I am sure she had caused more than I ever would." (Ch 7)
• "The rest of the cabin was made of lean-tos, which leaned to with such ambition that the outer perimeter of the cabin lay on the ground. I wasn't sure what Al did for a living, but it was a safe bet it wasn't carpentry." (Ch 9)
• "I always wondered about men who spent their time trying to anticipate and know a fish in a world where men's knowledge of each other could only be called scarce." (Ch 9)
• "In my experience, smoke usually indicated smoke and nothing more." (Ch 11)
• "It was some sort of supposed egg matter that I'm sure had never seen the rear end of a chicken and two greyish meat patties that had never oinked." (Ch 13)
• "It's department policy to only shoot people once a day; it's a budgetary thing." (Ch 16)

An exceptionally well-written police procedural whodunnit. I understand that there are now nineteen books in the series. I've fallen in love with the characters and I'd love to read some more but there are so many books in the world .

May 2023; 354 pages

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

 

"In the Heart of Prague" by Andrew Pratt

A very competently written police procedural murder mystery.

 A newly retired English cop nicknamed Honza is on holiday in Prague and happens to be on the scene of the murder of an English tourist so he is recruited by the Czech police as a consultant. 

The book is clearly laying the foundation for a series of books. This means that time was invested in describing the setting, detailing the back story of the protagonist, and creating original characters. These things can slow down the pace of the story but add colour and depth and a sense of realism; they are all exactly in line with the conventions of this genre.

A notable feature of the book, one that differentiates this book from many others and has been recognised by other readers as a particular strength of the book,  is that police interviews are rendered as transcripts (including the same explanation of why a retired English policeman is sitting in) which adds considerably to the verisimilitude. 

My only criticism, and the reason for giving four rather than five stars, is that I found the dialogue rather formal. It almost read like a series of witness statements. This made sense for the Czech characters, and there was certainly less formality for the English character, who sometimes used slang, but I felt that, while it made the story clearer, I couldn't tell from the dialogue which character was speaking. 

The structure of the plot conforms perfectly to the four part model with major turning points at the 25%, 50% and 75% points. The revelation of the killer came a little earlier than normal but enabled the final section of the book to move into chase mode.

Selected quotes:

• “I think in English you say it will put hairs on your chest. Over here we just say you need another shot for the other leg.” (Ch 4)
• “'Well, I think you British say, the bird must get the early worm.' 'No, no,' said Jonny, exasperated but being pulled unwittingly into the conversation. 'The saying is "an early bird gets the worm".' 'Exactly, that’s what I said.'" (Ch 5)
• "As age had crept up on him, he had found walking more and more satisfying," (Ch 13)

A well-written whodunnit with a distinctive authorial voice. 

January 2021

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"In a House of Lies" by Ian Rankin

 The 22nd Rebus novel!

John Rebus has long retired and has COPD. Ex-sidekick Siobhan Clarke, now a DI, is assigned to investigate the murder of a man whose body has turned up after going missing years ago; the missing person case was investigated by a team that included John Rebus. The baddies include Steele and Edwards, who were also on the original team but are now investigating bent coppers; but are they themselves bent? In fact, who isn't bending the rules? Every officer appears to be compromised in some way, including our heroes.

My biggest criticism of this book was the way in which the final solution was sprung on the reader (though there are some clues). The investigation is bogged down, making pitifully slow progress, the story itself kept going by the inclusion of a sub-plot. Then the soil analysis finally arrives and, following some extraordinarily serendipitous policing involving a chase, the solution arrives. I struggled to find any motive for the accessory. And the criminal? His behaviour during the investigation seemed to me to be totally out of character with his behaviour when the original crime was committed. This stuck-until-you-get-lucky structure may be reflective of real policing but there are certain expectations of a whodunnit which I feel were unfulfilled.

But this is only tangentially a murder mystery. It's really the chronicle of a fascinating group of characters, all of whom have skeletons in their cupboards, and a commentary on corruption and decay in public life.

Selected quotes:

• "Make sure both violence and at least partial nudity appear within the first ten minutes. Fear and desire ... are what drive us." (Ch 11)
• "'What type does Tess go for usually?' 'Sentient'" (Ch 21)
• "George's wallet probably needs WD-40, it opens so seldom." (Ch 21)
• "These days by the time a whisper reached the internet it had become an ill-intentioned and half-formed yelp, a yelp capable of spreading like the more virulent flu bug." (Ch 26)
• "Copy the action of the person opposite and they might begin to sense similarities rather than differences." (Ch 29)
• "Carlton was shaking his head, sniffing and angling his head so no tears would escape." (Ch 50)

This was an enjoyable read but I felt it was unfair to those of us who try to solve the puzzle.

Other Inspector Rebus books reviewed in this blog include:

• A Question of Blood
• The Naming of the Dead
• Strip Jack
• Tooth and Nail: Rebus in London: poor stuff
• Standing in Another Man's Grave
• In a House of Lies

November 2021; 428 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

"Keep Them Safe" by Sarah Bartrum

 The story of the hunt for a child killer. Partly it is a police procedural, told from the point of view of the lead copper 'Joanie'. Partly it is told from the point of view of a paedophile ('Sid') who is initially a suspect but later seems to be being groomed by the child killer into becoming either an accomplice or to be framed as the fall guy. This is an original (and brave) PoV and some of the best parts of the novel are those which explore Sid's feelings:

• "It was the hair that did it. Flashed gold so bright that it left blue spots before Sid’s eyes. A beacon against the drab cement walls; a distraction from the stench of urine. It shot straight through Sid’s retina and lit up the dark corners of his brain, the parts that were better kept in shadow." (C 1)
• "Sid thought how perfectly formed that tongue was. The colour of a sunset blush neatly curved at the end. Saliva made it glisten as it withdrew behind the lips." (C 5)
• "Sid wasn’t sure which he was aware of first, the buzzing in his pocket or the throbbing of his penis." (C 18)

Sid lives in a flat on his own. He works collecting trolleys at the supermarket. He isn't very clever and he gets frightened. Abused as a child, he knows his feelings for children are wrong but ... There is a level of honesty and reality about this portrait that soars way above the stock whodunnit thriller.

It is also original regarding the copper. Most such books have the protagonist a social misfit or a loner with a past including a fractured relationship. Sid plays the part of the social misfit so Joanie is allowed a wife and a grown-up daughter. The usual job problems (and his wife's redundancy) put this relationship under strain and a substantial proportion of the novel is devoted to exploring the development of the relationships within the family.

In short, this novel is a refreshing take on the whodunnit genre with some genuine originality and three-dimensionality.

Some other great moments:

• "Sid had spent his whole life being avoided by beautiful people." (C 1)
• "They’d end up saying things they didn’t mean or maybe they’d say things they did mean but had never dared voice before?" (C 4)
• "Lying in bed, she let him spoon his body around hers. Joanie was surprised to notice how far his stomach prevented his face from nuzzling into her neck." (C 8) I love this comment on the difficulties of this position!
• "Even now when she had so clearly asked him to bed, he had declined. Why was that? But a part of him knew. A part of him felt that he could no longer make the grade. That no matter what he did, it wouldn’t be enough. He was failing at work, and he certainly wasn’t winning at home. Maybe it was time to accept his lot." (C 10)
• "The wheel was as flat as Mickey’s baseball cap after they’d chucked it in front of that lorry." (C 11)

There is depth and honesty in this novel. A great read. January 2021

You can see a free preview and purchase the book on the Amazon website.

Sarah Bartrum has also written Tracks, which is an even better novel.

This review was written
by the author of Motherdarling

"Three hours" by Rosamund Lupton

A blindingly well-written police procedural.

Gunmen attack a school in a wood on the coast of Somerset. The headteacher is shot and badly injured. He and some pupils are barricaded inside the library; other pupils are in an isolated pottery classroom, some are rehearsing Macbeth in the theatre, others are in classrooms. Rafi, a refugee from Syria with PTSD, is searching for his little brother; he also wants to keep his girlfriend safe.

It is snowing. The police are trying to find out what is happening and the parents are concerned for their kids.

It isn't perfect. I guessed the major twist well before the half-way mark. The insistent comparisons with Macbeth were sometimes intrusive. The author's message steered perilously close to propaganda and, for a moment, broke us out of the story; it wasn't needed to make the point. And it was clear from the manipulations of the plot that Rafi and Basi would have to be confronted by a gunman together as close as possible to the end. The hero was just a touch too perfect; the villains had no redeeming qualities.

But what the heck. I loved it.

It is a nail-biting page-turner which had me pacing the floor; towards the end I had a damp-eyed moment. I was never certain whether the end would be happy or sad.

Thrillers don't get better than this.

"The word 'shot' lodges in her mind, cruel and bloody, making her nauseous. 'Shot' isn't written down or spoken so she can't cover it up with her hand or shout it down and she wonders what a mind-word is if it can't be seen or heard. She thinks that consciousness is made up of silent, invisible words forming unseen sentences and paragraphs; an un written, unspoken book that makes us who we are." (1.1)

"She absolutely believes in purgatory now, knows first-hand all about purgatory, and it has a linoleum floor and Formica tables and no windows and a phone that doesn't ring." (1.10)

December 2020; 305 pages

Rosamund Lupton has also written Sister.

The writer of this review, Dave Appleby, 
is author of the novel Motherdarling

"Found" by Erin Kinsley

A boy, Evan, is abducted on the way home from school. A police hunt begins. Months pass.

Then the boy, still alive, is discovered in the boot of a car at a petrol station. Traumatised by his experiences he becomes an elective mute.

The book follows his journey, struggling with his memories on a Yorkshire farm with his grandparents (one of whom has serious cancer), and at the same time follows the police investigation, made more urgent when another boy is taken.

It is a brilliant concept and a real page-turned; I raced through it in an evening and a morning session. I was a little sceptical about the use of elective mutism: it seemed a little like a plot device so that Evan's evidence, which helps to solve the case, can't be realised until the book is nearing its climax. The police procedural aspect is also slowed down by resource constraints so that some leads that at the end seem obvious are not followed up. But the account of Evan's rehabilitation and his life with his grandparents, both of whom are undergoing the mundane tragedies associated with old age, is realistic and humane and, near the end, brought a tear to my eye.

Plot turning points: spoiler alert

• Almost exactly half way through the book is a big turning point when Evan's mother who, since his abduction and even after his recovery has been going downhill, decides to stop drinking, clean the house and sort herself out.
• Evan's recovery is at 19%. This is perhaps a little early. He is articulate when he tells the police his name and asks for his mother to come and get him. It is afterwards that he turns mute (and this is later explained by telling us that he can't talk about the paedophile abuse he suffered to his parents)
• Evan's grandmother dies (which triggers the beginning of his speaking again) almost exactly at the two-thirds mark. The second kidnap happens almost immediately afterwards.

Great lines:

• "I'm every woman's type, I am. Loaded with charm, like a pizza with every kind of topping."
• "A picture of innocence whose innocence is lost."

December 2019; 369 pages

"The Seagull" by Ann Cleves

A disgraced, imprisoned ex-detective superintendent tells detective inspector Vera about a buried body. Vera and her team start to uncover the shady past of The Seagull, once Whitley Bay's premier nightclub, and the dodgy pasts of those associated with her, including Vera's own father and the mysterious man they called 'The Prof'.

Prostitutes, prisoners and property developers. A page-turner of a police procedural crime novel set in the North East of England and featuring Vera Stanhope.

Great line:

• "The sunrise made an orange path over the water towards them." (p 112)

March 2018; 397 pages

An even better Vera Stanhope mystery is Telling Tales

"Missing, Presumed" by Susie Steiner

Posh girl Edith, doing a PhD at Cambridge, goes missing from her Huntingdon home after a drunken night out. Boyfriend? Best girl friend (last person to see her)? Father? Local sex pest? The Huntingdon cops have a high profile misper, possibly murder, on their hands.

And then a body turns up in the Ouse.

Told as a police procedural from multiple points of view: female DS (getting older, no baby, lonely and desperate, internet dating with most becoming one night stands); mother; male DC (cheerful chappy but breaking up with his controlling girlfriend); flaky misper's girlfriend.

I didn't get the twist although I think my solution was better.

Most interesting from my point of view because I know most of the places mentioned. She is very accurate about places although I couldn't work out how she took the train to Bedford from Huntingdon.

And there is a delightful relationship between the desperate female DS and the ten year old brother of a murder victim.

Some nice lines:

• “She picks up her toothbrush and lays along it a slug of toothpaste.” (p 5)
• “Man makes pudding! round of applause!” (p 9)
• “He rubs his hands together and blows into them.” (p 27)
• “The passage of time ... is like a growing tumour for a missing person, as if time itself drains the life from their bodies.” (p 83)
• “The sky has turned pink, striated yellow; a radioactive lozenge at its centre, reflected in the river.” (p 152)
• “before you know it, it can be too late” (p 157)
• “a plastic bag, bowling along in mid air, it handles like beseeching arms.” (p 194) 
• “‘I should have fuckwit tattooed on my forehead’
• ‘Wouldn’t fit’. ...
• ‘Just twat then’” (p 345)
• “Quite a few of [her] sexual selections have been based on paper-thin criteria, like being in the same room.” (p 414)

November 2017; 419 pages