Gone Tomorrow, by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Ninth "Bill Slider" book. A minor criminal is found stabbed to death in a park playground; it appears to be a professional hit, and as the investigations proceed, further witnesses and potential witnesses either disappear or turn up dead. There are hints of a Mr Big figure, called "The Needle", but no-one will talk about him to the police.

After reading the eighth book I had decided to give this series a rest; that seems to have been the right thing to do because it felt really good to get back into another episode in the series, and to catch up with Bill and Joanna again.

Again it's the writing that is enjoyable. I noted a couple of things at the beginning, and then forgot to note more because I was just enjoying it:

Sergeant Paxman was a great solid bull of a man, his curly poll growing a little grizzled now, like an elderly Hereford. He had a bull's massive stillness too, a complete lack of fidget, which spread out around him in waves. It made him invaluable when they brought in belligerent drunks or drug addicts with the screaming abdabs: in a room full of thrashing arms and legs he was a kinetic black hole.
and
Created in that unloved period of architecture, the Phoenix was everything a pub didn't ought to be...The prevailing design motif was the avoidance of everything that could be picked up and thrown.

Good one. I've got one more unread one here, but looks like she's now up to #15 now, so I can order some more.

Completed : 29-Jun-2013 (audiobook)

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