Weekend in Weighton by Terry Murphy

Weekend in Weighton by Terry Murphy
Buy Weekend in Weighton by Terry Murphy at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Crime
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A (wise) cracking investigator, great plot and action scenes which take your breath away. A good read.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 465 KB	Date: January 2012
Publisher: Grinning Bandit Books
ISBN:
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Eddie G (well, it's Eddie Greene, actually, but Eddie G sounds so much more street-wise, don't you think?) has a hundred percent record of solving the cases he takes on as a private investigator. That sounds very impressive until you find out that he's only just taken on his first case, but it's a mark of his determination to succeed. The first blip on the radar which suggests that all might not be well is finding the clap-cold body of his client on her living-room floor when it's not fifteen minutes since he spoke to her on the phone.

That's not a good start to a Friday night, but before long it's going to get a whole lot worse. Jimmy Cartwright, the local crime boss (and definitely not someone to tangle with) suggests that he'd not mind seeing Eddie dead. The police have him chalked in for a murder. The mayor (who might have had a close connection with the corpse before she became a corpse) thinks that now would be a good time for Eddie to leave town and his girl friend agrees - but she'd like him to do it without her.

When I started reading Weekend in Weighton I thought that Eddie was going to annoy the hell out of me. He's twenty-six, wedded to his mountain bike and smart-talking. Actually, 'smart-talking' rather understates the position. Eddie has a wise-crack, a line from a song or a smart rejoinder for every situation. I was only a few pages in before I stopped being annoyed and started enjoying him, because the gobbiness isn't just a veneer that he flashes when the author feels like it: it is Eddie and Terry Murphy has written a great character who wheelies off the page. He's not a one-off either: solicitor Kate Connolly, crime boss Jimmy Cartwright and the nation's finest down at the local nick all stay in the mind.

It's a gritty, northern location. Terry Murphy says that it's fictional, but you get the feeling that he knows it rather well. The plot is good too. It's a great whodunit that had me guessing right up to the end and I swear I forgot to breathe in some of the action scenes. In a whodunit they're usually an excuse for a weak plot, but not in this case. I hear that there's going to be another outing for Eddie before too long. Just give me chance to get my breath back, Mr Murphy!

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

It's set in London but for a book with a similar feel for the streets we can recommend Never Apologise, Never Explain - An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig. For another compelling northern setting we can recommend the Inspector Banks novels by Peter Robinson.

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