| Publisher | Crème de la Crime |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 21 July 2015 |
| ISBN-10 | 1780290772 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1780290775 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 224 |
| Price | £ 14.56 |
Death on Demand
by
Norfolk DI Peter Shaw would rather be surfing, but he has to deal with the murder of a 100-year-old woman, threatened unrest on a pilgrimage and the murky history of an almost-derelict estate.
Review
Peter Shaw is an unlikely surfer dude – he’s got one eye and he’s a DI in West Norfolk police. He and his wife Lena live pretty much on the beach, where she runs a café. But his day job ensures it’s not an idyllic life soaking up the sun all the time.
I absolutely adore Kelly’s other series, featuring local paper journalist Philip Dryden. I’d read the first in this police procedural series some time ago, and wasn’t fussed either way. But I’m glad I gave Shaw and his sidekick Valentine another go.
It’s Ruby Bright’s 100th birthday, but she doesn’t get to celebrate it at the old folks’ home. She’s found dead in her wheelchair on a clifftop. And it’s not death through old age – someone had put a plastic bag over her head.
Meanwhile, there are strange goings-on in the Parkwood Springs estate, an old part of the town reached through a tunnel and which is virtually derelict. And Shaw is having to deal with the annual pilgrimage to the shrine at Walsingham, which is being threatened by protestors. The new chief constable seems particularly keen that the event passes off without disturbance.
Kelly doesn’t write crash, bang, wallop crime fic – he’s leisurely, thoughtful and absolutely first-class at building up an atmosphere of a place. And he takes time, too, to establish the relationships between the characters. Shaw and DS George Valentine are an unlikely pairing with a sort of past history in the shape of Valentine being paired with Shaw’s late copper father. They’re not friends, but they work neatly together.
Valentine is an old-style cop, and has concerns of his own during the book. I liked his relationship with Probationary PC Jan Clay, who is a no-nonsense woman older than your average would-be copper. She’s the widow of a policeman – one of Valentine’s former partners.
I still think that Kelly’s other series ranks higher than this one, not least because it is more off-beat and nuanced, particularly when it comes to the history of the area. It seems that every angle has been done on police procedurals these days, so a one-eyed surfer DI is just another to add to the list! But Kelly is a classy writer who never fails to transport the reader to a time and place, and who creates characters that get you invested in what happens to them.
I absolutely adore Kelly’s other series, featuring local paper journalist Philip Dryden. I’d read the first in this police procedural series some time ago, and wasn’t fussed either way. But I’m glad I gave Shaw and his sidekick Valentine another go.
It’s Ruby Bright’s 100th birthday, but she doesn’t get to celebrate it at the old folks’ home. She’s found dead in her wheelchair on a clifftop. And it’s not death through old age – someone had put a plastic bag over her head.
Meanwhile, there are strange goings-on in the Parkwood Springs estate, an old part of the town reached through a tunnel and which is virtually derelict. And Shaw is having to deal with the annual pilgrimage to the shrine at Walsingham, which is being threatened by protestors. The new chief constable seems particularly keen that the event passes off without disturbance.
Kelly doesn’t write crash, bang, wallop crime fic – he’s leisurely, thoughtful and absolutely first-class at building up an atmosphere of a place. And he takes time, too, to establish the relationships between the characters. Shaw and DS George Valentine are an unlikely pairing with a sort of past history in the shape of Valentine being paired with Shaw’s late copper father. They’re not friends, but they work neatly together.
Valentine is an old-style cop, and has concerns of his own during the book. I liked his relationship with Probationary PC Jan Clay, who is a no-nonsense woman older than your average would-be copper. She’s the widow of a policeman – one of Valentine’s former partners.
I still think that Kelly’s other series ranks higher than this one, not least because it is more off-beat and nuanced, particularly when it comes to the history of the area. It seems that every angle has been done on police procedurals these days, so a one-eyed surfer DI is just another to add to the list! But Kelly is a classy writer who never fails to transport the reader to a time and place, and who creates characters that get you invested in what happens to them.
Reviewed 24 October 2015 by Sharon Wheeler
