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East of Innocence by David Thorne (view source)
Revision as of 15:30, 31 August 2020
, 15:30, 31 August 2020no edit summary
Think ''Raymond Chandler meets Ray Winstone'' (with due apology to the actor!)… the language is definitely East London and points north, but stylistically there's more than a nodding reference to Philip Marlowe.
Connell might be a solicitor rather than a private eye, but his office might have been bought right of the Cahuenga Building and rebuilt, held together with gaffer tape obviously. He doesn't quite have Marlowe's winning ways with the ladies, but he does have his penchant for talking himself into the biggest trouble around. He might not carry a gun himself, but he certainly knows a man who probably still does.
Of course , that makes the whole thing a bit derivative. It's just that I'm one of those readers that, far from seeing anything wrong in that, feels that when it's done as well as this, it actually has a charm all of its own.
Nothing particularly complicated or fussy about the thing, but it rattles along at the right pace to keep you to it until it's all worked out. I enjoyed it.
For more East Anglian crime with a sharp edge, I'd recommend Bolton's Lacey Flint novels [[Dead Scared by S J Bolton|Dead Scared]] or [[Like This, For Ever by S J Bolton|Like This, For Ever]]. You might also enjoy [[The Woods Murder by Roy Lewis]].
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