CRIME FICTION
BLACKWATER by James Henry (Riverrun £12.99)
THIS is the first in a planned sequence of essex-based crime novels by the man who wrote three prequels to r. D. Wingfield’s DI Jack Frost novels.
There are certain similarities between the two heroes — the almost 40-yearold DI nick Lowry and the eternally grumpy Frost. but there are differences, too, for Lowry is an accomplished boxer on the police team and there is a strikingly beautiful WPC to underline the contrast with Frost’s distinctly male Denton nick.
The story is set in Colchester in 1983, where a shipment of drugs is being brought into the garrison town by the blackwater estuary.
The smell of the marshes permeates every page, as does the presence of the military police, who like to wash their own dirty linen, rather than leave it to the local constabulary. This is old-style policing set in an interesting period, and it’s an encouraging start to what is likely to be an engaging series.
SO SAY THE FALLEN by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker £12.99)
THIS is the second of neville’s stories featuring emotionally scarred belfast DCI Serena Flanagan, whose husband was attacked on her last case, leaving her marriage failing and her two children troubled.
now undergoing therapy herself, Flanagan is asked to investigate the suicide of wealthy car dealer Harry Garrick, who lost his legs in a car accident six months previously and was condemned to spend the rest of his life bedridden. He appears to have taken an overdose of the morphine he used to help him sleep.
on the surface, it looks an open-and-shut case, but Flanagan’s instinct kicks in when she realises that the dead man’s widow seems remarkably close to the local vicar, reverend Peter McKay, a man who may have lost his faith — though he takes care to conceal this from his parishioners.
neville goes from strength to strength, giving us a flawed detective who retains her humanity in spite of the dark, bleak landscape of Ulster.
BLACK WATER LILIES by Michel Bussi (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £12.99)
THIS elegant crime mystery shimmers as delicately as the paintings of Claude Monet that lie at its heart.
Set in the normandy village of Giverny, where the founder of modern impressionism ended his days in 1926, it focuses on three women. one, in her 80s, watches over the village from the tower of her mill by the stream; another is a beautiful young schoolmistress; while the third is an 11-year-old painting prodigy.
The novel opens with the discovery of the body of a local art collector, whose passion for art is matched only by his desire for women.
He has been stabbed, hit over the head with a rock and then drowned. In his pocket is a postcard of one of Monet’s paintings of water lilies with the words ‘eleven years old. Happy birthday’ written on the back.
The case is investigated by Inspector Serenac, who finds that the three women share a secret. a bestseller in France, it is a dazzling, unexpected and haunting masterpiece.