Dead Scared by S J Bolton

Dead Scared
by S J Bolton
Transworld (Bantam), 2012

Reviewed at Petrona, February 2012.

The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

The Devotion of Suspect X
by Keigo Higashino
translated by Alexander O Smith with Elye Alexander
Little, Brown UK, 2011 (first published in Japan 2005)

Reviewed at Petrona, February 2012.

Good People by Ewart Hutton

Hutton, Ewart – ‘Good People’
Hardback: 320 pages (Feb. 2012) Publisher: Blue Door ISBN: 000739117X

There are many well-established UK detective series whose authors use regional settings: Yorkshire, the Lake District, Sussex, Northumberland, Edinburgh, the Fens, and many more. Here, Ewart Hutton makes the claim for DS Glyn Capaldi of mid-Wales to join this pantheon. Does he succeed? The signs are very good, but I have a few reservations.

Capaldi is the narrator of the book; he has been transferred from big city (in Welsh terms) Cardiff to the black hole of mid-Wales after a botched investigation. Mid-Wales is a large, mountainous area with few roads, so having a detective on the spot to respond to the rare but dispersed crimes will save the police force money compared with having to dispatch officers from the nearest large town. Capaldi is pretty fed up – his wife has left him and he lives in a caravan – so almost out of boredom becomes involved in the strange case of a missing minibus which was taking some rugby supporters home after a Wales-England match. The uniformed police, all locals, are not concerned about the disappearance of the minibus or the occupants, putting it down to a drunken prank. Their view seems to be vindicated next morning, when the vehicle is found carefully left in a car park and the men concerned turn up after spending the night in a shack in the woods. Capaldi is unconvinced, as one of the men is still missing. What’s more, a woman was seen on CCTV getting on the bus at a service station but she, too, has vanished – if she ever existed. The other passengers tell the police that the two of them have gone off together, but because of a past case in Cardiff which ended in tragedy, Capaldi refuses to accept this explanation and against the orders of his bosses and to the annoyance of his local colleagues, pursues his investigation.

The book takes a few chapters to get into its stride. At first, the writing style seems to be a mix of the whimsy of the Aberystwyth novels of Malcolm Price and American hardboiled, which when applied to a missing minibus in farm country is quite amusing, but made me wonder how the author was going to keep it up for a whole book set in rural Wales. Soon, however, substance takes over from style, the narrative grips and the mystery becomes intriguing – I was hooked.

Capaldi follows the time-honoured tradition of tracking down all leads and witnesses, relentless in his search for the truth whatever the humiliation or cost to himself. In the process he encounters the Welsh farming mentality, the care home system for both ends of the age-range (children and old people), prostitution at the perverted end of the scale, and even, possibly, love. The pacing is very good indeed, as layer after layer of information is glimpsed yet each time turns into an almost-dead-end.

Unfortunately the final eighth of the book is a big disappointment. Most people suddenly begin to act out of character or in contradiction to what they stood for previously; the villain(s) seem to construct incredibly complex fallback plans in some ways yet be incredibly careless in others; the subplot of Capaldi’s ex-wife’s new husband starts promisingly but peters out; and the solution to the mystery seems unnecessary – the same end could have been achieved far more simply.

Despite the mess of an ending, I think this series has lots of potential as the character of Capaldi is engaging, the way in which Welsh life and attitudes are conveyed is astute and funny without being sentimental, and there’s an emotional honesty yet toughness to the book that I really liked. I just hope that next time, the resolution of the plot is compatible with the set-up instead of spiralling away from it into baroque incredulity.

Review first published at Euro Crime, February 2012.

The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves

Cleeves, Ann – ‘The Glass Room’
Hardback: 352 pages (Feb. 20121) Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 0230745822

THE GLASS ROOM is a solid crime novel, the fifth to feature the engaging Northumberland DI Vera Stanhope. Vera returns to her farmstead from work one night to discover her neighbour Jack in her kitchen, distraught because his partner Joanna has disappeared. He asks Vera to find where she’s gone, which takes her no time at all. Joanna is at a residential course at Writer’s House, a centre for aspiring authors to learn their trade and said to be an inside route to the elusive goal of publication. Vera decides to drive there herself to ask Joanna whether she wants Jack to know her whereabouts. But when she arrives she is plunged straight into a murder scene in the titular glass room, with Joanna the prime suspect.

Vera, present in a personal capacity, calls in the local police and her colleagues from CID. Those present at Writer’s House at the time of the murder are rounded up and all but a handful eliminated from the enquiry for logistical reasons. The remaining suspects or witnesses include Miranda, the owner of the house and business; her son Alex; a retired policeman now hoping to be a published author; a young man who has discovered a writing talent while in prison; an elderly famous crime writer who is teaching on the course; and another teacher, Nina, an academic and aspiring writer. By the process of elimination, one of these people, or Joanna, must have committed the crime – though there is the outside chance that a random stranger could have gained access.

Vera and her sergeant Joe Ashworth interview most of these characters, though oddly leave one out whom I thought they would have wanted to question immediately. Of course, this proves to be an important omission a few chapters later. The police find that the evidence that seemed to incriminate Joanna in fact does not, so she is released and the course uneasily continues while the police examine the background and history of all their suspects (including Joanna of course). Part of the story is told from the point of view of Nina, who in her academic role has reason to dislike the murder victim and who seems to be a target for someone’s malice or worse. Most of the book, however, is filtered through Vera’s, and occasionally Joe’s, perspective, all of which give the author plenty of opportunity for astute comments on the publishing scene.

THE GLASS ROOM is a traditional, Agatha Christie-style book, relying on gradual unearthing of untold relationships and past actions among a small group, rather than on modern technology or details of police procedure. There are a couple of early clues that the police don’t follow up, but once the detectives gather momentum it is clear that Vera is getting to grips with all the complexities and will work it out eventually – without recourse to the “messages” the criminal is leaving, which in the end turn out to have gone over everyone’s heads (will readers spot the references, I wonder?).

Those who have read the author’s Shetland series will recognise some initial similarity with BLUE LIGHTNING, about a murder at a bird-watching centre, but the author treats this theme very differently in THE GLASS ROOM, which despite some tragic moments is not as dark as the earlier novel. THE GLASS ROOM is a chatty, relaxing read rather than a cutting-edge slice of noir, with a well-constructed crime plot that will please the many fans of Vera.

Review first published at Euro Crime, February 2012.

The Accident by Linwood Barclay

The Accident
by Linwood Barclay
Orion, 2011.

Reviewed at Petrona, February 2012.

The Brotherhood by Y A Erskine

The Brotherhood
by Y. A. Erskine
Bantam, 2011.

Reviewed at Petrona, February 2012.

Long Gone by Alafair Burke

Long Gone
by Alafair Burke
Avon (Harper Collins), 2011.

Reviewed at Petrona, February 2011.