RogerBW's Blog

Nothing to Hide, James Oswald 02 March 2022

2019 contemporary thriller. After the events of the last book, DC Constance Fairchild is on suspension and hounded by the press. But she's a born copper, so when a man turns up by her bins, mutilated and barely alive, she can't keep out of it…

The first of these books was a pleasant change from Oswald's McLean pattern – not that I dislike that, but I do feel that a new series and protagonist deserve a new voice. This one's much more in his usual style: yes, Con is still a different voice from McLean, but the core structure, the pattern that introduces the obvious villain quite early and does nothing to put anyone else in the frame, is the same. (Here, though, there's a welter of coincidence that causes the Bad Cult to cross Con's path in three separate ways, which is probably about two and a half too many for my taste.)

The McLean books are police procedural thrillers, but while Con's interacting somewhat with the force (most of whom, in one of the book's most realistic touches, blame her for the fuss attached to the downfall of well-liked officers who'd been revealed as having been on the take for years) she's still mainly a lone hero here, and there's never any doubt about the course of the investigation; a little uncertainty could have gone a long way to satisfying my mystery-reader mind too.

(I'm also deeply unconvinced that a synthetic super-potent variant of cannabis should be the Worst Street Drug Ever.)

But I still enjoyed the book; Oswald's writing is always good, and he has both well-drawn people and interesting events. Several characters from McLean show up when Con is briefly in Edinburgh, but this isn't just a name-check: seen from a different angle they come over quite differently, even while they're acting consistently with their actions elsewhere. Con's interactions with her family are well drawn, though it would certainly help if you've read the first book.

Flawed but fascinating.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

Previous in series: No Time to Cry | Series: Constance Fairchild | Next in series: Nowhere to Run

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1