| Publisher | Severn House |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 31 December 2014 |
| ISBN-10 | 0727884689 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0727884688 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 240 |
| Price | £ 19.99 |
A Good Way To Go
by
Bristol DI Liam McLusky has just returned to work after suspension – and is embroiled immediately in a murder enquiry where the victims have been left bound and gagged.
Review
Trouble follows Bristol DI Liam McLusky around like a second skin. He’s barely returned to work after suspension when he’s involved in a murder enquiry following a body being fished out of a canal.
It looks like a weird, ritual killing. And it becomes even stranger when another body is found, bound and gagged like the first. Except, McLusky can’t work out what the link is between the victims.
Meanwhile, Kat Fairfield, his rival DI, both personally and professionally, is on the case of a bloke with a fetish for tights. It’s a seemingly trivial enquiry that is about to get spectacularly nasty.
McLusky verges on the stereotypical cop with his screwed-up love life, living in a spartan flat and eating junk food. Fairfield isn’t much better either. And they’ve both been pursuing the same woman – a spectacularly unsympathetic university lecturer who deserves to be left alone with her pretentious friends. McLusky’s ex-wife Laura is also in the city – she’s a mature student at the University of Bristol, and their paths keep crossing.
Helton writes two series – this police procedural one, and another starring artist and reluctant PI Chris Honeysett. On what I’ve seen so far, the former is slightly pedestrian and the latter rather more quirky. He can’t do point of view for toffee, though, when he’s not writing in the first person.
A Good Way to Go is, if you’ll excuse the pun, a bit of a plod in places. Wouldn’t the police have investigated from the beginning what linked the victims? I can usually be guaranteed to miss clues, but I guessed early on whodunit. McLusky and sidekick DS Austin don’t seem very adept at joining the dots and doing much detecting.
I’m not sure Helton knows the difference between councillors and council officers (the former are elected and the latter are employees). One minute he’s talking about a deputy chief executive, the next a councillor. And yes, it does make a difference. My old Public Administration tutor would be glad to know his efforts weren’t wasted!
This all sounds grumpier than it’s meant to. Helton has a light, fluent style, and the book moves along at a fair trot. But it’s a tad one-paced and really rather gloomy – McLusky eats a lot of chocolate and people get murdered horribly. If you want something lighter and a bit more unusual, go for the author’s other series.
It looks like a weird, ritual killing. And it becomes even stranger when another body is found, bound and gagged like the first. Except, McLusky can’t work out what the link is between the victims.
Meanwhile, Kat Fairfield, his rival DI, both personally and professionally, is on the case of a bloke with a fetish for tights. It’s a seemingly trivial enquiry that is about to get spectacularly nasty.
McLusky verges on the stereotypical cop with his screwed-up love life, living in a spartan flat and eating junk food. Fairfield isn’t much better either. And they’ve both been pursuing the same woman – a spectacularly unsympathetic university lecturer who deserves to be left alone with her pretentious friends. McLusky’s ex-wife Laura is also in the city – she’s a mature student at the University of Bristol, and their paths keep crossing.
Helton writes two series – this police procedural one, and another starring artist and reluctant PI Chris Honeysett. On what I’ve seen so far, the former is slightly pedestrian and the latter rather more quirky. He can’t do point of view for toffee, though, when he’s not writing in the first person.
A Good Way to Go is, if you’ll excuse the pun, a bit of a plod in places. Wouldn’t the police have investigated from the beginning what linked the victims? I can usually be guaranteed to miss clues, but I guessed early on whodunit. McLusky and sidekick DS Austin don’t seem very adept at joining the dots and doing much detecting.
I’m not sure Helton knows the difference between councillors and council officers (the former are elected and the latter are employees). One minute he’s talking about a deputy chief executive, the next a councillor. And yes, it does make a difference. My old Public Administration tutor would be glad to know his efforts weren’t wasted!
This all sounds grumpier than it’s meant to. Helton has a light, fluent style, and the book moves along at a fair trot. But it’s a tad one-paced and really rather gloomy – McLusky eats a lot of chocolate and people get murdered horribly. If you want something lighter and a bit more unusual, go for the author’s other series.
Reviewed 04 April 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
