A Man of Sorrows: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig
| A Man of Sorrows by James Craig | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Number six in the Inspector Carlyle series could be read as a standalone but you'll get the continuing story if you read the books in chronological order. It's a crime thriller and a reasonable read. | |
| Buy? Maybe | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 304 | Date: February 2014 |
| Publisher: C & R Crime | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1472100412 | |
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Inspector John Carlyle has a lot on his plate. His attack on a paedophile priest left Father McGowan injured and angry and Carlyle in a vulnerable position. The fact that the Pope is due to visit ups the political pressure and brings Carlyle into conflict with his old nemesis, Christian Holyrod, the Mayor of London. Then there's the armed robbery at a very upmarket Mayfair jeweller when tens of millions of pounds worth of stock goes missing - along with one of the assistants. Normally he'd have had some support from his boss, but she's on secondment in Canada and the man replacing her has great hopes for Carlyle - mainly that he can get him dismissed. Then Carlyle's wife has a serious health scare and his daughter is growing up very fast.
And fast is really the best word to describe this book. The pace never lets up for a minute and it's a tribute to James Craig's skill that we manage to keep track of what Carlyle is doing. He's got more than one major case on the go and he's fighting the politicos and his own boss. Even his sergeant seems to lose patience with him on occasions - but she can usually find him in one of the local cafes (of which we hear just a little too much - I reached a stage of drawing five-bar gates for the number of green teas and espressos he drank in the course of a day ) rather than in Charing Cross police station.
As ever with Craig there's a real feel for London and it's the city where people live and work (Carlyle gets jittery when he's out of it) rather than the tourist destination. Pleasing too was the way that the female characters came off the page. Carlyle's daughter is a relatively minor character in the book but when I turned the final page I was left wondering about how she was getting on - Craig has captured her perfectly.
Despite the pace of the book it took me a little while to feel that I'd been pulled into the story but by the time I got to the halfway point it wasn't easy to put the book down. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
It's a good series to read in chronological order as you get the back story to some of the characters. For some psychological crime in the heart of London try Like This, For Ever by S J Bolton. For a near-future thriller set in London you might like to look at A State of Fear: Britain After a Dirty Bomb by Joseph Clyde.
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You can read more book reviews or buy A Man of Sorrows: An Inspector Carlyle Novel by James Craig at Amazon.com.
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