‘You’re only ever half serious, Poe,’ she said. ‘I think it’s because you have a sunny disposition, although DCI Flynn says it’s because you suffer from mild retardation.’
MW Craven is an entertaining crime writer, and this latest in his Washington Poe sequence is light on its feet and propulsive, with a fairly clever serial crime at its centre. This is book 7 in the sequence, and it’s starting to show signs of “series problems” – series gain a returning cast that thins out the time given to the central characters – Poe’s wife to be, formerly a formidable pathologist, is barely used — and new characters injected for energy just steal more time from them. Also, Craven is starting to refer back to previous books more, which can be an advantage or a curse. That said, the final twist in the book suggests Craven knows all this and is about to make a big leap away, and there’s a fun structural game in the book that was very pleasing.
‘The last time we had contact there was considerable . . . unpleasantness.’
‘How unpleasant?’
Locke cleared his throat. ‘He said if he ever saw me again, he’d, and this is verbatim, “Take those stupid glasses off your head and stick them up your bony arse.”’
It’s a fun, fast read, and made for a few days of lovely summer escape.
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