THE BOOKSELLER, Tim Sullivan

‘Do you want me to arrest you?’ Carson sputtered with as much dignity as he could muster, which wasn’t much. ‘Well, if you need to arrest someone, as you’ve gone to all this trouble, then please go ahead,’ he said, with a deferential smile.

That network tv procedural show that sticks like glue to its format, but which you watch because the machinery of it is so well-honed. These are the George Cross crime novels. And they’re at the point where you need to have read the last three or four before reading this one. You can’t just jump in with any book any more. If you’ve read any of the others, you’ll like this one, which pulls off its final twist pretty well.

This is, however, my last case with the autistic Detective Sergeant George Cross. Sullivan has built a lovely little device here, and he operates it very well. If you’re looking for cosy crime, try any of the three or four books previous to this one. And the little dives into the history of British bookselling are fun. But- and this is entirely personal feeling – cosy familiarity eventually drives me off, and so it is here.

A few moments later a door with a reeded glass panel opened and a ball of white hair, in the middle of which could be two small black eyes, appeared. Denholm Simpson, for it was he, had a resplendently thick mop of hair on his head and a vast white beard almost covering his entire face, ending just below his eyes. His mouth was completely hidden somewhere in this hirsute undergrowth, its location indicated only by a brown nicotine stain. He looked like an out-of-control muppet on a windy day.

“For it was he.” Gorgeous.

I am unsure as to how these books are not an ITV series yet.

THE BOOKSELLER, Tim Sullivan (UK) (US+)