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Drowned Lives by Stephen Booth
It is 1998. Chris Buckley, a soon-to-be redundant information officer for Staffordshire county council, lives alone in his dead parents’ house. At 32, drowning in self-pity, he drinks too much and even rebuffs the advances of the attractive woman next door. Ditch-water dull, you can’t help but wish he’d fling himself into the local canal.
However, it’s not too long before he’s jumping off a blazing barge and fighting for his life — all because a man claiming to be his great uncle has inveigled him into writing a book (for £50K) about a family feud involving “two hundred years of bitterness and vengeance” and, of course, the odd murder or two.
Stephen Booth, thus far known for his provincial policiers set in Derbyshire, has a great sense of place. Indeed, Lichfield, the cradle of Dr Johnson, and its waterways, are the main attraction of Drowned Lives. Alas, its complex plot depends on Buckley acting stupidly so that he can be taught there’s no escaping the past and there’s nothing more important than family.
The historical details add fascinating depth to this big fat mystery about the challenging business of building canals — and bridges. If only the narrator wasn’t such a wet weekend in Walsall.
(Sphere, £20), buy it here.
A Dangerous Man by Robert Crais
Former marine, ex-cop and grief-magnet Joe Pike can’t even go to a bank without spotting something wrong. A female cashier on her lunch break is shoved into the back of an SUV that immediately takes off. Pike — described by another cashier as “manmeat on a stick” and always a gentleman — follows the damsel in distress. Needless to say, his brutally efficient rescue mission only leads to more trouble.
The kidnappers tell the abductee: “We know your secret.” Pike needs the help of his regular sidekick P.I. Elvis Cole to find out what that secret is and to protect the damsel from her pursuers. If this breathless thriller reads like a TV screenplay, it is an excellent screenplay. Robert Crais has written for such shows as Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice and L.A. Law. What stops it being merely generic is Cole’s wisecracking and Crais’s fine sense of irony.
One example must suffice. As the action builds to a climax by the beach in Malibu, a senior bad guy, judging his hired goons, tells himself: “No wonder crazies like Manson and the Night Stalker popped up out here. These people were defective.” There’s nothing wrong with A Dangerous Man.
(Simon & Schuster, £16.99), buy it here.
