Mark Sanderson (1) (1962–)

Set in Snow Hill, London, in 1936, this books tells the story of newspaper reporter Johnny Steanman, who gets an anonymous tip-off that a policeman at Snow Hill Station has been killed. However, when he asks other police officers about it – including his best friend PC Matt Turner – nobody will corroborate the story, and Johnny is told to leave well alone.

Wanting to get to the truth of the matter, he keeps digging and the discovery of a gruesome murder scene makes him only more determined. But soon it becomes apparent that there is a web of corruption being spun to cover up a number of horrific violations, and Johnny ends up fighting not only for his own life, but also to save the lives of those closest to him…

My thoughts

This book was certainly not what I was expecting. What I had thought it would be was a psychological thriller with a scrappy but good-hearted protagonist. I was half-right…Johnny did make for a fairly likeable main character. He is certainly the most well drawn character of the plot – the rest are drawn with fairly broad strokes and more than a little stereotyping.

The story itself was considerably more gruesome than I had expected. The murder scene which Johnny stumbles upon as described above, was particularly unpleasant, and the plot revolves heavily around male sexual assault and violation (no spoilers here; this part is made apparent fairly early on) and subsequent cover-up.

However, for all that the story flowed pretty well and I found myself reading large chunks at a time.

Overall, I would have liked a bit more characterisation – I never felt that we got to know Matt’s wife Lizzie, or Johnny’s colleague Bill as well as we could have done and it might have drawn me in a bit more if I had been able to invest more in the characters. Nonetheless, based on this book I would probably try more by this author.… (altro)

Robin Hood Yard – Wonderful Evocation of 30’s London

Robin Hood Yard is the third in the novel in which author Mark Sanderson uses the investigative journalist John Steadman and Detective Constable Matt Turner in the evocative 1930s square mile in the City of London. This is the City of London before concrete and glass took over, this is the City in which people still lived and made things to sell, amongst the financial sector workers, in the dark backstreets and alley ways, Pubs and buildings that are no longer there as well as some that are still around today.

Investigative Johnny Steadman is the best crime reporter on the Daily News, and he does do well out of his friend (who he has been friends with since his school days) and a detective, Matt Turner. He is allowed to witness the corpse of a murder victim who has had his gentleman’s appendage removed possibly as some sort of trophy. When a second victim suffers the same fate both Johnny and Matt try to work out what the connection is to both victims as they look completely unconnected except that they live in lodgings in the City of London’s square mile.

Leo Adler is about to become the next Lord Mayor of London and with the war clouds gathering over Europe and rumours of how the Jews are being treated in Germany, a Jewish banker is set to take over at the Mansion House. In the weeks before anti-Semite attacks on Bevis Marks Synagogue as well as on Adler himself, who also is sent various items to cause distress. What Steadman discovers could bring not only Britain to her knees but quite a few City types while putting him in danger.

While Steadman runs his two investigations, Turner investigating the murders there is another story of blackmail taking place that causes intrigue which enables you to question the integrity of one or more institutions. Ye Old Mitre, an establishment even I have frequented, is mentioned quite a few times as are a few places that were either destroyed during the war or worse by city planners.

What all this adds up to is a fast paced thriller in which we get everything a reader could want, dead bodies, conspiracy theories all played out in the shadow of war. The language used is evocative of a lost age and the imagery that it gives off is the dark seedier side of London and the City, this is the London before the planners really got their hands on it. This book may only be two hundred odd pages long but it certainly packs a punch that is an entertaining read, one that I cannot recommend highly enough.… (altro)

I love the Inspector Morse series, both as books and television films so, when I found this book on the shelves of my wonderful local second-hand book shop, I snaffled it immediately.

The book is one of those glossy coffee table jobs and I thought that I would flick through the pretty pictures and put it on the shelf. Fortunately, something on the first page of text grabbed my attention and I read from cover to cover. The book provides a succinct biography of Colin Dexter, the creator of Morse, the writers and directors of the series, and the actors but, it does not stop there; it gives an insight into the problems of selling the two hour programme to the networks and also the ethos of the team.

I was not aware that the music, created by the wonderfully named, Barrington Pheloung, often contained 'clues', or that everything was specially recorded for the show, as that was cheaper than buying the rights to an existing recording. The book is packed with little nougats of information such as that, and was well worth a couple of hours reading.… (altro)