Cut to Black by
Graham Hurley
hbk out October 04
Published by Orion
at £9.99
This is one of the best 'police' novels I've read in a long time and
confirms Graham Hurley as one of the leading writers in this type of
crime fiction. The action takes place in Portsmouth, an unusual city for a
British crime story and is the fifth in the series about Detective-Inspector
Joe Faraday.
He is a widower, now living part of the time with Eadie, an Australian
documentary film maker. He has a deaf-and-dumb son 'J-J', who has an
aptitude for visual art and is helping Eadie make a hard-hitting video
about the effects of hard drugs. Unfortunately, the lad gets accidentally
involved with the dealers who are supplying their film subject with heroin
and gets himself arrested.
The main plot is the story of a long-running covert operation code-named
'Tumbril', intended to topple Bazza Mackenzie, the drug baron of
Portsmouth who has been untouchable for so long. Joe Faraday gets
pulled from his usual CID duties to join this hush-hush squad and is not
happy at the move, especially when it all goes pear-shaped. Another of
the running characters in the series is well to the fore, DC Winter, a
canny, unconventional detective, who though a loose-cannon, tends to get
results.
The author's depth of knowledge of police operations is remarkable - and
his grasp of forensic techniques and pathology cannot be faulted - a rare
attribute these days. The plot is beautifully constructed and the dialogue
and writing are impeccable. Graham Hurley was himself a television
documentary-writer before becoming a full-time author and his skill in
constructing a taught, believable story must stem from this experience.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
Cut to Black by
Graham Hurley
