Customer Reviews

The Twilight Time

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When Sergeant Anna Cameron arrives at Glasgow's Stewart Street police station to take charge of the Flexi Unit she shows a very confident front - composed, successful, and more than a little frosty. Her personal life, however, is anything but composed and successful. Prostitutes are being viciously attacked and Anna's team is tasked with solving the crimes - a task made much more difficult by the often suspicious and sometimes downright unhelpful nature of the victims. In addition, Anna gets involved in the case of an elderly Polish man who is the target of racial abuse. Anna is a really interesting character - sometimes frustrating, sometimes cold, often very likeable, but above all, never dull. All the characters are very well drawn and some of them are surprisingly touching, without being cloying and melodramatic. In places the book is very dark and not for the squeamish. Along with the darkness there are also some great touches of black humour which mean that it's not a depressing read. The setting is one of the best depictions of Glasgow I've read, and it's shown as the schizophrenic, gritty, in-your-face, characterful city it is. On top of all that, there's a gripping plot that is full of twists and turns. But this is not a bog standard police procedural. It's an insight into real peoples' lives - police, victims and criminals - who all come across in shades of grey.

I particularly like Scottish crime writers and have had this book on my wish list for sometime. I finally got round to buying and reading it last week. To be honest, I didn't know what I had been missing and wish I'd read it a long time ago!

TWILIGHT TIME takes a somewhat different stance from traditional crime stories and cleverly combines crime fiction with a story line about motherhood and missed opportunities.

Anna Cameron, the main character, is a Sergeant with Strathclyde Police. She is dedicated and good at her job. The other central character is Cath Worth, a new mother experiencing severe postnatal depression. Cath is married to Jamie, an old flame of Anna's from Tulliallan, the Police Training Academy. Anna and Jamie are back working together.

Cath and Anna are two unlikely friends as they are very different characters but help and support each other in their own diverse ways.

Anna's team are investigating attacks on prostitutes in the red light district. An elderly Polish Jew is murdered and Anna gets involved in that enquiry as well. Sectarianism and all the dogma associated with it also play a part in the tale.

I found the writing to be raw and gritty yet tempered with soft emotional understanding. Karen Campbell has demonstrated the skill to do this - yet in the next sentence she manages to make you laugh out loud with quips like:
"And do we have any more of our little friends on a retainer? Perhaps your milkman would like a wee hurl in the Drugs Squad? Or maybe you have a neighbour who'd like to book some speeders?"

The Glasgow dialect comes across brilliantly and I could just picture Glaswegian friends coming out with a lot of the colloquialisms used. However, I'm not sure how those unfamiliar with some of the expressions might feel as they might find it heavy going.

Karen was a Strathclyde police officer herself and very successfully combines her excellent writing skills with her first hand experience of the Scottish crime scene to provide a very realistic look at the darker side of Glasgow.

This is the first in a series of books by this author. I'm about to download the sequel, After the Fire (2009). I'm sure I'll then be moving on to Shadowplay (2010) and the recently released Proof of Life (2011).

If you enjoy Scottish crime writing, I'm certain you'll like this excellent book.

Sergeant Anna Cameron is beginning a new assignment in Glasgow as head of the Flexi Unit. Flexible Policing means a mix of plain clothes and uniforms. A big part of their job is to both protect and persecute the local prostitutes. Protection becomes more of an issue when someone starts slashing the cheeks of the "hoors." At the same time, a charming old man Anna meets briefly ends up getting murdered. It's not her case, but she can't help getting involved.

Anna is good looking, but her manner is repellant (cold, rude). She's widely disliked. The higher-ups are always on the verge of firing her. She has appalling relationships with men. But she's consumed by her work, a totally dedicated officer and a tireless investigator. The tough angry cop who gets results is a familiar figure in crime fiction, but this time the tough angry cop is a woman. So Anna can be seen as messing with sexual stereotypes. A complex, character, she's weak and strong, fearful and heroic, aggressive and compassionate by turns.

I liked the heavy use of Scottish slang, and the crude banter among cops and on the street. The author is a former police officer and knows her subject. But I was sometimes uncomfortable with the narrative style. I was deep into the book before I realized why. When things get tense, the prose transmutes into poetry. For example, "Pendulum brain, striking painful fluid" is a headache, I think. I don't care for obtuse writing. But other readers may love the literary intent of the style.

The plot has plenty of momentum, and the ending is a surprise. Even if you have mixed feelings about the novel, as I did, you won't be bored.