Dying of the Light by Gillian Galbraith

Dying of the Light by Gillian Galbraith
Buy Dying of the Light by Gillian Galbraith at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Loralei Haylock
Summary: The third, and strongest, novel in the Alice Rice series maintains the winning combination of character development and crime.
Buy? Maybe	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 256	Date: April 2009
Publisher: Polygon
ISBN: 978-1846971167
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When two prostitutes are murdered and laid out, their arms across their bodies as if in prayer, the CID believe they have a serial killer on their hands. Keen to stop the killings before it becomes 'another Ipswich' and a complete media frenzy, it's all hands on deck. Unfortunately, Alice's usual partner is off sick, so she is paired with Simon Oakley.

There is DNA evidence on the bodies from a priest who swears he was nowhere near any of the murdered girls and never even met them before. DCI Bell thinks they have their perpetrator, but Alice has doubts, sending her down a dangerous side investigation. Meanwhile, Miss Spinnell, Alice's barmy neighbour, wants to see her sister again, after nearly fifty years of family rift. But would such a meeting help or damage the old lady's fragile mental state?

Sometimes I feel with crime books the author has plotted according to 'what every good crime novel should have'. Red herring, check, 'you think it's all over but really it's not' moment, check, victims murdered in a ritualistic fashion, check. While that isn't really an issue – readers come to genres expecting a certain amount of clichéd tropes – it can be difficult to find a book that has something else, something special that stops them being 'okay' and makes them 'good' and, on occasion, 'great'.

What Galbraith gives the reader is little aside details – small, trivial matters that don't mean anything for the progression of the main story, the solution of the crime, but add flavour and colour to the narrative. I love Miss Spinnell. She's brilliant. Handled with the perfect balance of humour and tragedy, she's the ideal contrast to the dark and logical world of the CID.

The topic of prostitution is handled with the same sensitivity. Much like with the wind farms in the previous Alice Rice book, there is no heavy handed authorial opinion leaking in to the narrative, leaving the reader free to think and feel what they want about the trade.

The third book in the Alice Rice series is stronger than the second. It maintains the winning combination of character development and crime, with enough going on outside the main storyline to keep the investigative side from becoming tedious or samey.

There is plenty of scope here for further instalments. The characters at Alice's CID are interesting and varied, there is plenty of background colour, and of course, crime never stops. If Galbraith can continue to build on, or at least maintain, the good work she has done so far, the Alice Rice Mysteries could be a really great series.

My thanks to the publishers for sending a copy.

Check out bookbag's Top Ten Crime Novels for some great further reading!

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