Murder, Mystery, Literature     

 My rating:  4 out of 5     

A brutally murdered man is found at a London Theatre.  Solving the murder is just one of the themes of this beautifully written modern literature novel.

Set mostly in 1985 DS Rex King has not only a murder on his hands, but his friend has gone missing and work is not going as smoothly as he’d like. Policing techniques at that time are explored as King’s murder investigation takes us through the streets of London and into the theatre world.   Later the story takes us back to the 1970s to a group of hippies who are living in a commune in France, enjoying an idyllic life far away from the strikes and upheavals going on in the UK at this time.   

A book to sit back and enjoy.  The cover is so beautiful that I strongly recommend getting hold of a paper copy, rather than an e-book.  Each chapter contains some bold print words where the author has incorporated the solutions to the Guardian Quick Crosswords in March – April 1985; quite amusing and very clever. 

This is a book to savour and think about.  Only 300 pages, but it took me twice as long to read as a normal thriller of that length, because of the beautiful style of writing, and the occasional foray into Google to look up events and places mentioned.  

Great for Book Clubs or studying.  The plot is tidied up nicely, but there is plenty of material for discussion, and perhaps differences of opinion.

A 4* rating from me as I really enjoyed most of this book, but some of the middle section (in France) lost my attention a little.   Certainly a pleasure to read (and hold) such a beautifully written book.