Call the Dying by
Andrew Taylor
pbk out August 05
(Hodder)
at £6.99
One of the many pleasures of crime fiction is to see an author develop from promising
beginnings to star status. Ian Rankin and Peter Robinson are among the writers to
have made this transition in recent years and we can add another name to the list.
Andrew Taylor is a prolific and talented novelist who is surely about to shake off the
tag of being our 'most underrated crime writer', to quote from the jacket of his
seventh and latest Lydmouth mystery, and become a household name. Taylor's work
has included the quirky William Dougal books, the dazzling Roth trilogy and
intriguing stand-alones such as 'The Barred Window' and 'The American Boy'. Here
he takes his series featuring the on-off relationship of DCI Richard Thornhill and
journalist Jill Francis to a new level. The six earlier Lydmouth books are enjoyable,
and have displayed an increasing confidence, but this is unquestionably the best so
far. The 1950s setting is nicely evoked and the mystery (concerning the death of a
doctor and disappearance of a mysterious visitor to town) is cunningly contrived;
there is even a chase scene towards the end. The tension between the former lovers is
convincingly conveyed and the final sentence of the story paves the way - one hopes
- for further instalments in the Thornhill-Francis saga. This is traditional crime
writing at its best.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Call the Dying by
Andrew Taylor
