Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery) by Simon Mason

Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery) by Simon Mason
Buy Lost and Never Found (A D I Wilkins Mystery) by Simon Mason at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: #
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 352	Date: January 2024
Publisher: riverrun
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1529425864
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In Oxford, there are two D I Wilkins. Raymond Wilkins is of Nigerian descent, Balliol educated and always exquisitely dressed. D I Ryan Wilkins, son of Ryan and father of Ryan, is not. He's not any of those things. He's white, originated from a trailer park, barely educated (reading's not really his thing) and his wardrobe consists mainly of shell suits and trackies. They're usually in lime green or acid yellow. You might wonder if you're being introduced to a police procedural written for laughs. Well, you're not. The two men are just different sides of the same policing coin. Sometimes the combination works brilliantly well. Sometimes it's problematic.

And so it is at the beginning of this story. It's the annual awards dinner and Ray and Ryan are there with Ray's wife and Ryan's girlfriend. Ray's presented with an award and whilst Ryan's his cheerleader he can't help having a grouse to Carol afterwards about the fact that Ray wouldn't have got the award if it hadn't been for him. The tables are about to be turned though. At three o'clock in the morning, there's a 999 call from wayward celebrity Zara Fanshawe and an hour later her Rolls Royce Phantom is found in dingy Becket Street. You don't normally find them parked in bus shelters. Ray assumes that he'll be in charge - he's the award winner and ideally suited to dealing with this sort of person. It's not to be though - he'll be reporting to Ryan on this one.

So - two disgruntled detectives. Ryan's a struggling single parent and he's perceptive as a detective but he knows he's no good at the press conferences and Ray knows it too. Someone else understands what's going on. The legendary Chester Lynch - black, female Deputy Chief Constable - takes a shine to Ray and a dislike to Ryan. Life is going to get difficult for everyone. Ryan doesn't cope well - unruly doesn't describe what happens when the investigation doesn't go his way.

I was given a nod about this series and over Christmas I treated myself to audio downloads of the first two books in the series - A KIlling in November and The Broken Afternoon. Now, it didn't harm that the narrator of both books is my absolute favourite narrator, Matt Addis but I was hooked. The location - Oxford - is brought to life brilliantly and the characterisation is superb. The plots are thought-provoking and I didn't work out what had happened in any one of them. It's a new entry in my list of must-read detective series.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more from Oxford, you might like to try No Way Out by Cara Hunter.

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