Customer Reviews

Death Watch (Detective Shaw Mysteries)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read a load of Mystery books. I prefer the British series mostly l think as l am orginally from London. I wish l could put my finger on what sets some of the best writers apart from others. What l do know that is that you can tell almost instantly that some one has it or doesn't. Jim Kelly has it. His new series (this is the second one. Death wore White is the first), has two very interesting main characters, DI Shaw and DS Valentine. One is the up and coming star the other looking for redeption. I would compare his talent to the like of Elizabeth George and P.D. James. Clear writing and clever plots. I personally prefer to read series books in order so l'd recommend Death Wore White first but both books are complete within themselves. I sure hope this is just the beginning of a long set.

'Death Watch' by Jim Kelly is a murder mystery set in London. We follow the workings of DCI Peter Shaw and DS Valentine. Partners with a past. Shaw is the son of a former DCI who also partnered with Valentine. The elder Shaw retired in disgrace after a case was lost on bad circumstances. DS Valentine was also cuaght in that case gone bad, but was demoted and transfered.

The police are called in when a body is found in a hospital's incinerator. Foul play is evident, and Shaw/Valentine work it. We find out the deceased is the twin of a girl who disappeared 18 years ago to the day. Further investigation leads them to an arson, vandalism, missing people, more dead bodies, missing human organs, and human organ trafficing. In the background are two cold cases.

The old case that went bad for Peter's father and Valentine is being worked on in the background. A boy was murdered and in the course of the investigation the prime suspects are let go after a mistake made during questioning. Pieces of this old puzzle are found and Peter and valentine start to put things back together on the old case.

The disappearance of the twin girl is also resurfaced with the murder of her brother, and the attacks on the man who was originally thought to have killed her.

It sounds very complex and a bit overwhelming. How can so many cases (old and new) be interconnected and converging? The story moves well and the suspense builds as each chapter rollsinto the next. I found the characters a little lacking in appeal, especially Peter Shaw. I also found the convergence of all these cases to be a little too much to believe.

The book is enjoyable and is a good read.

As far as British mysteries are concerned, this novel is as far out as they go. An 18-year-old case is combined with contemporary mysteries to befuddle the best of detectives, giving DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine plenty to chew on, as well as keeping the reader intrigued.

That eighteen-year-old case involved a pregnant 15-year-old girl who disappeared and whose body was never found. However, her twin brother "feels" her death. Two suspects still live on the street where she had lived with her family. Now the charred remains of the brother are found in a hospital incinerator where he was employed to feed waste. The ensuing investigation uncovers other discrepancies at the hospital and it is up to the two detectives to solve the crimes before any more deaths occur.

It is a complex puzzle that faces the police team, one that requires a combination of insight and forensic science. At the same time, Shaw and Valentine are haunted by the botched murder investigation of the young girl, following which Peter's father was virtually drummed off the force. Written with power and a profundity that keeps the reader guessing, the novel is rcommended.

Once again, Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine must set aside their differences to investigate a bizarre murder in King's Lynn, a city on the Norfolk Coast of England. Bryan Judd, who works in the labyrinthine maze beneath the Queen Victoria Hospital, is responsible for the cremation of medical waste. On September 5, 2010, someone stabs Bryan, lays his body upon a conveyor belt and sends him into the incinerator's fiery hell. This occurs on the eighteenth anniversary of his twin sister Norma Jean's disappearance. Bryan, who shared a psychic link with her, always insisted someone drowned her.

A power outage sends nearby Erebus Street (named after the entrance to Hades in Greek mythology) into chaos. Buildings are vandalized and set ablaze, including a hostel for homeless men. The homeless all fear the mysterious Organ Grinder who kidnaps them at night. During their investigation, Shaw and Valentine discover mutilated corpses of homeless men in the sewer and on a sandbar. What is the link between Bryan Judd's death and the disappearing homeless men? Also, who could have murdered the pregnant Norma Jean eighteen years ago? There are three suspects: her father Andy, a Polish immigrant neighbor, Jan Orzsak, and her career-criminal boyfriend, Ben Ruddle.

Jim Kelly's "Death Watch" is a superb sequel to his best-selling "Death Wore White." "Death Watch" is just as complex and bizarre a mystery as the series' debut. Every suspect is guilty of something criminal and Shaw and Valentine must spend many sleepless nights struggling to discover everyone's secrets. This novel contains numerous crime scene investigations that are state of the art. The stern, always professional pathologist, Dr. Justina Kazimierz, returns to perform more grisly autopsies and discover more unusual clues.

The one-eyed Peter Shaw is the novel's main character. George Valentine, friends and partner of Peter Shaw's late father, Jack Shaw, begrudgingly assists the younger man. They are still the odd couple of police officers. Besides their vast difference in age, they have other dissimilarities: Shaw is a lean athlete who enjoys swimming in the ocean and Valentine is an overweight couch potato who is a chain smoker and borderline alcoholic; Shaw is very healthy and Valentine speaks with a raspy voice, coughs tremendously and has difficulty controlling his bladder; Shaw is a family man and Valentine is a widower living a solitary existence.

However, a thirteen-year-old unsolved case still links Shaw and Valentine and makes their association more tolerable. Robert James Mosse remains a free man after him and his gang of hoodlums strangled nine-year old Jonathan Tessier. The investigation (first introduced in "Death Wore White") was botched, resulting in the early retirement of Jack Shaw and the demotion of George Valentine. It is an investigation that may remain unresolved for several more novels in the series. This is fine with me because I look forward to reading more mysteries involving Shaw and Valentine.

King's Lynn is the perfect locale for Jim Kelly's mysteries of the macabre. A port city, it has the beaches, the fog and the coldness that warns of approaching winter. It is early September and the tourist season is coming to an end, but Shaw's wife Lena is still getting some business at her beachfront store. However, spooky, creepy Erebus Street is where most of the novel's action occurs. The street consists primarily of small cottages, a tavern, a launderette, a church, a slaughterhouse and a quayside. The stone church with is arches, religious murals and cold gravestones is very gothic. When the electrical sub-station is vandalized, the entire neighborhood is plunged into a virtual hell.

"Death Watch" abounds with evil characters who are too difficult to name without giving away the plot. It seems that institutions once considered safe, such as the hospital and the church, have become breeding grounds of corruption. The homeless have become extremely vulnerable. They, along with others who are deemed weak or inferior, are preyed upon and exploited by the greedy. The family unit also comes under great scrutiny. The Judds of Erebus Street are a very perverse, amoral family. Its members are all guilty of having broken the laws of men and God. Alcoholism, vandalism, murder and adultery run rampant. Bryan Judd shared a psychic link with his twin sister, Norma Jean. I wish this interesting concept could've been explored in greater detail.

Fans of the "CSI" television series, English noir and Jim Kelly will greatly enjoy "Death Watch." (Because of the continuing case of Jonathan Tessier's murder, I recommend reading "Death Wore White" first.) I had my doubts as to whether "Death Watch" would be as enjoyable as "Death Wore White." However, after reading about poor Bryan Judd being thrown into the fiery incinerator, my doubts quickly vanished. As I read the proceeding chapters, the plot became even more mysterious, gripping and intriguing. I couldn't stop reading. Soon I was reading seventy-five to one-hundred pages each day. Now I'm on a watch for the next Inspector Shaw mystery from Jim Kelly.

Joseph B. Hoyos

I am a huge fan of Jim Kelly and rate his Philip Dryden mysteries as some of my favorites. But what sets them apart - iconic, well-developed characters, sly humor and intricate plotting, are sorely missing in his Shaw mysteries. Grim and graphic (almost grotesque) plots filled by unlikeable characters, without depth, are provided instead. With books by Rankin, Hannah, Bolton, and Malla Nunn offering much more, I won't be returning to this series.

On 1 September, the day that then teenager Norma Jean Judd vanished without a trace eighteen years ago, her twin brother Bryan lays charred in the Queen Victoria Hospital incinerator. The case is assigned to Detective Inspector Peter Shaw assisted by Detective. Sergeant George Valentine.

Peter initially is unaware that his father, who was Valentine's former partner, worked the Norma jean disappearance back in 1992 as did George; that inquiry crippled their careers. After Peter informs the victim's family, he rescues a reluctant frightened man, mumbling about the Organ Grinder, from a nearby homeless shelter inferno that he learns later was arson. The two West Norfolk cops find more corpses in which body organs have been harvested; leaving both to wonder how the dots connect now and eighteen years ago.

This excellent British police procedural (see Death Wore White) will bring much acclaim to Jim Kelly. The story line is fast paced from the early call to Peter that a homicide occurred at QVH and never slows down as both cops seek redemption; one for his dad and the other for himself. Readers need to set aside time as they will want to go every step of the way with Peter and George who feel they are on a Death Watch one step behind a surgically diabolical killer.

Harriet Klausner

I am stopped from giving this book five stars because the characters are so awful. The very few characters who are not unlikable or even worse, nasty, don't come to life - I just don't care very much about Peter Shaw (protagonist, a British police detective) or his family. Shaw's assistant, Valentine, is both pathetic and repellant (he's multiply addicted - alcohol, cigarettes, & gambling) - and his professional ethics aren't all that great, either, as we learn in this book. Then there's everyone else -- no-one seems to be a normal, decent, well-meaning human being. It is as if the author agreed with Luther's assessment of the human condition: that humans are fundamentally depraved.

But - this mystery is particularly well plotted, with so many story lines that somehow all come together that it is like looking at a cathedral built out of matchsticks - the skill is amazing. The story begins with a man who is almost cremated in the incinerator of a medical center in King's Lynn, England. He is quickly identified as living on Erebus Street, an old slummy street with a lot of secrets - many of the story lines have to do with this street. At the time of the initial murder, the power is out on Erebus Street. The murder victim had a twin sister, who disappeared from her home on this street almost two decades ago, when she was 15 and pregnant. There's a church-run hostel with some strange characters who disappear. What is their connection to Erebus Street and the events? And then there's a totally unrelated mystery being investigated - has to do with finding the killer of a child who died a number of years ago. Problems with the investigation cost the career of Peter Shaw's police detective father and his then-time partner Valentine (who was demoted). Both Peter Shaw & Valentine are anxious to nail the perpetrator, whom they believe got away with murder.

I felt that about 50 or so pages could easily have been removed. I personally don't need three pages on how cows are slaughtered (unbelievably, in a residential district - Erebus Street, of course). It wasn't necessary and confirmed my feelings about why we shouldn't eat cows. Kelly needs to let someone go through and edit his work - I suspect it's like pulling teeth to get him to take a single sentence out. I think a more concise book (this was over 400 pages) would have been better. The whole subplot about his father's ruined career could go, in my opinion. I just don't care about it, and it's distracting.

I hear the author has another series, which I intend to try reading. I hope that I find more likable characters with the same strong descriptive and plotting skills.