Customer Reviews

No Lovelier Death (DI Joe Faraday)

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In the ninth and most recent Hurley book there's a subtle change of emphasis on the front cover where the by line now proclaims " A Faraday and Winter Story", acknowledging that Paul Winter has indeed gone 'to the dark side' and becomes a second equally central character in the storylines.
The City of Portsmouth (Pompey) is still the backdrop, with this story perhaps emphasising more than ever the social divides that increasingly divide the 'haves' from the 'have nots'. There's a murder as a starting point, but it involves the next door house to the villain of these stories, Bazza McKenzie, and one of the victims fathers is a judge who has taken a particularly outspoken part in sentencing those in the City involved in the drug scene. Mix in the ongoing relationship between Faraday and his lady friend Gabrielle, and also his unpredictable son JJ -together with the tension between Jimmy Suttle, still in the Police Force and the increasingly unpredictable Paul Winter in a murder in which the Police and Civil Authorities are desperate to solve quickly and the story unfolds grippingly and at times unexpectedly.
Many of the other usual 'faces' appear during the course of the story, and a couple of the twists are both violent and central to the plotting. Hurley also leaves many unresolved questions when the events that form the central plot are unravelled.
If you're not familiar with Graham Hurley's work then I would earnestly suggest that you read this as a preface to going back to reading the previous eight from an author whose work improves with every book.