Exit Stage Left

Lancelot Foley is most definitely an AC-tor with ideas of grandeur. So what the heck is he doing dead in some roadworks one snowy February morning?

Enter, stage left, DCI Harry Brock, his bagman DS Dave Poole, and plain-talking Aussie DI Kate Ebdon. Their investigations take them to Paris as well as London as they discover that Foley’s wife Vanessa Drummond – also an AC-tor – may not be quite as innocent as she’d have them believe. And then other deaths follow.

Exit Stage Left is a nicely sprightly police procedural, set amongst a wise-cracking team in London. It has echoes of Cynthia Harrod-Eagles’ exuberant Bill Slider series in that it features a load of feisty cops who get on well together and who you’d want on your side when the chips are down.

Unlike Harrod-Eagles, though, who has a rather old-fashioned tendency towards a white police force and black or Asian villains, Graham Ison makes his patch feel like it reflects the real London. Dave Poole is black – and takes great delight in turning up and looking threatening at recalcitrant punters. Like Harrod-Eagles’ women cops, Kate Ebdon has a tendency to call a garden spade an effing shovel!

Harry Brock himself is a pleasantly relaxed narrator, with a nice line in dry humour. He’s no-nonsense, good at his job, and I even forgave Ison the clichéd love life thread. Harry has a slightly uncertain relationship with an actress – and there’s the almost obligatory unresolved sexual tension between him and Kate (while the rest of the squad have their tongues hanging out every time the striking Aussie marches into the room).

Exit Stage Left is tightly plotted, boasts snappy dialogue and has a couple of plot twists to make sure you’re paying attention. I haven’t come across Ison before, and fully intend to root out his back catalogue. Apparently he’s an ex-soldier and plod, so we have it straight from the horse’s mouth. And a very handsome and entertaining nag it is as well!