This is the latest outing for what must be the most off-beat but likeable characters in crime fiction – DC Simon Waterhouse and his wife Sergeant Charlie Zailer.
They and the rest of the Culver Valley police team must track down a murderer, code-named Billy Dead Mates because of his habit of killing pairs of friends.
Central to the investigation are spiky, stand-up comedian Kim Tribbeck and strident feminist Sondra Halliday, who fires off vitriolic blogs and wages battle with all and sundry on social media. But as usual with poet and award-winning author Sophie Hannah’s novels, the whodunnit element of the plot is a tiny fraction of what makes this a superb read.
It’s not just that all the characters, who feature in the TV adaptation Case Sensitive, are beautifully drawn, it’s the subtle humour running through, from first page to unusual sign-off.
Deeply satisfying and somehow life-affirming, it leaves you longing for your next fix of Waterhouse and Zailer.
