Simon Beech

I thought this cold case mystery was wonderfully constructed. Although, over 900 pages, and full of a myriad of characters, I never found it boring or too difficult to follow. It did help that on pages 321 & 322 a list of suspects was supplied (something I kept returning too for clarification as I got further into the story). As I live less than a mile from Clerkenwell, the setting for the 1974 murder, it was fun for me to visit all the places mentioned in the novel. Most of the buildings still stand. And it was nice to see the Three Kings pub is still open and surviving these strange times. The plot twists were well executed and I thought the ending was very satisfying. One slight niggle was an interesting subplot surrounding a gangster which didn’t really go anywhere, but I’m hoping that he reappears in Strike and Robins future exploits. SLIGHT PLOT SPOILER REGARDS ONE CHARACTER- As for the furore about an inclusion of a male suspect that dresses as a woman, if you read the novel, you discover that isn’t the case. It is actually a woman. It appears that misguided attempts by some “reviewers” to tarnish an excellent book with one star reviews because they may not agree with the authors comments (I thought debate was still a backbone of British democracy, but obviously not) is simply childish. I suppose, sometimes “facts”can be stranger than fiction.