Tangled Web UK Review September 2009
Family Life: An Inspector Starrett Mystery by
Paul Charles
hbk out September 09
Published by Brandon Bk
at £16.99
Family
Life - Paul Charles
Detective novels set in Ireland seem on the increase and long may it continue,
as most of them are excellent.
Though the author of this one is primarily a very well-known music promoter and
agent, he has written a raft of such crime stories. This the second of his Inspector
Starrett books, set in County Donegal.
Starrett (no first name ever given) runs the CID in a small town, the real-life
Ramelton up in the north-west corner of the Republic. He has to investigate the
suspicious death of a son of a local farmer, Liam Sweeny, who has been found lying
a quay-side yard, apparently drowned. The son, Joe Sweeny, was the mainspring
of the large and successful farm and one of Starrett’s lines of enquiry
revolves around Joe’s enterprise in forming a farmer’s co-operative
to by-pass the middle-men. However, the Sweeney family is large and together with
wives and partners, offers a dozen candidates for the killing, as Liam intends
leaving the farm solely to Joe.
This is real page-turning ‘who-dunnit’, the whole story being contained
within a small town and mainly within one family. The plot is laced with Starret's
own emotional problems, but the main feature of the book is the detailed and sensitive
writing about a humane policeman who has to work in a small town with people he
had known for most of his life.
The author was born in the area and his accurate and affectionate description's
of the location are an added bonus.
(
Bernard Knight
ex Home Office Pathologist and author of the highly acclaimed Crowner John series)
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