The Tattooed Detective by
David Craig
hbk out May 97
Published by Constable
at £15.99
Cardiff Dockland is in turmoil, "Things are breaking up.,....akin to dismemberment of the Soviet Union," in the words of Detective Inspector David Brade. Money is pouring into the development area and the local Villains are determined to cash in. One of these, Paul Yeo, is planning a bank raid with arch-fixer and go-between Julian Corbett, while pimp Maximilian, "prince of pimps", is laid up in hospital after a riot and Sweet Bachelor Percy, pimp and croak, is dragged dying out of an artificial lake.
Brade looks upon himself as "a custodian of dockland". He wants the place to be handed over to the "good forces of change", so the removal of Sweet Bachelor "has its plus side". But Sweet Bachelor's death is only one of many which Brade and his side kick Glyndwr Jenkins, "probably the only
bilingual Welsh-English black detective in South Wales", are confronted with in this well-written and often funny novel of life at the lower end. Brade is not so much concerned about the death or maiming of villains, but he is upset by the death of Olive Rice, a young prostitute, and the threat
to other prostitutes in the area, such as Erica and Louise, whom he takes under his wing. Brade has a difficult job and has an able supporter in Jenkins. He is on Christian name terms with all the people of dockland and is appreciated by everybody, with the exception of his superior, Bullfinch, who is smug and interfering and otherwise ineffectual.
The author switches alternately from villains to police. This is his usual method, whether writing as Bill James or, as here, David Craig. He knows his Cardiff scene well, as is apparent in a preliminary note. His villains are convincingly portrayed: Yeo and Carbett and Maximilian and Lestocque, and in particular the incomers, Hamer and Drinkwater, who try to stir up trouble for the chief London mobster, Samson. His non-villains, too, are very well done, especially the Reverend Rhys Gareth Lllewellyn of the Bethel Baptist Chapel. He is known as Floyd after the black heavy weight boxer, Floyd Patterson, and keeps pictures of the boxer in his manse and even has his hair shaped Patterson's way. Floyd is the father-in-law of Julian Corbett and the father of the nymphomaniac Harriet, Corbett's
wife, and makes caustic comments about both of them, Floyd is a joy. We must hope he appears in future docklands novels by David Craig.
The Tattooed Detective by
David Craig