Joseph Knox has another winner with ‘The Smiling Man’

Last year I reviewed “Sirens,” the debut novel by an English writer named Joseph Knox. That book introduced readers to his character Aidan Watts, a police detective in Manchester, England. It was desperately dark and thoroughly engrossing. I could not wait to read his next book.

Knox just published “The Smiling Man” and in this one Aidan Watts is back and, by some miracle, he is still a police officer.

If you read the first book then you know that Watts is a troubled young man. In that book he infiltrated a drug ring and he didn’t have much trouble blending in because he was consuming more illegal drugs than just about anybody else.

Actually, it is a miracle that Watts is still alive for another book and that he’s still employed by the police after all the crazy things he did in the first story.

In “The Smiling Man,” his reputation has not improved. Despite the fact that he has stopped gorging himself on illicit medications — his credentials remain in tatters.

As the story begins, we obtain a brief glimpse of some criminals who are executing terrifying home invasions.

They are employing a ruse; a young boy appears on someone’s doorstep. After he is allowed inside the house the unsuspecting Good Samaritans are quickly surprised by a demonic invader who comes bursting in behind the boy.

Then we shift to the night patrol as Aidan Watts and his partner Detective Inspector Peter Sutcliffe are cruising the streets.

Watts and his cohort do not get along.

Watts drives while his partner “Sutty” complains about him. Every time Watts touches something in the car Sutty quickly sprays and wipes it off with disinfectant. Even the steering wheel.

In Aidan Watts the author has created an anti-hero who seems to be lacking in just about every aspect of life and career.

Watts doesn’t seem to have any friends. His family background is a mystery.

His former lover, whom we meet again in this novel, has given up on him and gotten engaged to someone else.

Most of his colleagues seem to despise him. Even so, Watts is a dedicated detective and he’s determined to solve crimes.

The two officers are called to a former luxury hotel that is closed for renovations. They discover a security guard who has been knocked unconscious and further upstairs they find a dead man in one of the hotel rooms.

The dead man’s face is fixed in a grimace; he’s the “Smiling Man” of the title.

Watts is eager to investigate. The coroner arrives at the hotel and she is clearly unhappy to see Watts there.

She doesn’t trust him. She thinks he still a druggie.

His superior officer doesn’t want Watts on the murder case at all. He orders him to investigate a recent spate of trash can fires instead.

It turns out the home invasion sequences were flashbacks to Aidan’s childhood. The trash can fires are links to a murder.

And whenever Sutty gets back into the car Watts has switched the radio to a music station. Sutty hates music.

In “The Smiling Man,” Joseph Knox knocks another one out of the park.

Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www. wyso.org/programs/booknook. Contact him at vick@ vickmickunas.com.