The Dispossessed by Margaret Murphy

Discovering a new author can be a great excitement and one with a backlist, more so. This year, my Christmas came early and my only disappointment is that I wish I’d picked up a book by Margaret Murphy before now.

The Dispossessed marks the start of the “Rickman” series, set in Liverpool, with Detective Inspector Jeff Rickman as the main character, perfectly complemented by Detective Sergeant Lee Foster and Detective Constable Naomi Hart.

Like Ian Rankin’s Fleshmarket Close (Fleshmarket Alley in the US), this novel takes us into the world of immigrants and asylum seekers; but here we get much closer to the grim reality of everyday life, the hardships now suffered and those constantly remembered from a previous life, the threats and exploitation that exist around every corner and behind every closed door. The plot itself brings us an insight more alive than any documentary media format could achieve. (Something that can also be said of Mark Billingham’s Lifeless, in respect of those living on the streets.)

The plot is also a page turner and the book itself, a tour de force, if you ask me. I’ve avoided doing a “Best” list in the run up to Christmas as there are already so many out there and they get tediously boring after a while; the same top five for crime fiction, more or less. But I will say this. The Dispossessed was my best read of 2005.

Now, for the “why” bit.

1 The Dispossessed has the best first chapter I’ve read in a long time, possibly ever. It’s a great hook and not what it seems and you get a wonderful insight into two of the main characters. So, loving them already, I began to turn the pages…

2 A body falls out of a wheelie bin when refuse is collected. Murphy gives just enough information and knows how to the drawn the line in two ways: the full gruesome impact is left to your own imagination and questions remain unanswered. (A skill replayed later, to much effect.) So I continued to turn the pages…

3 Personal lives are in the minds of those we meet, especially those involved in the investigation. But that’s life as we know it, yes? Rickman is no exception, where he is forced to encounter his long estranged brother. A very interesting side-plot which leads to more page turning…

4 The cast of characters is so well drawn that emotional investment runs deep. This leads to one scene towards the end of the book, which is both gut wrenching and heart breaking. It’s also the most powerful piece of writing I think I’ve ever read.

5 Who did it? Well, I think it’s very definite here, that the reader needs to read on to the bitter end to find out.

I loved the characters. I enjoyed following the plot. I appreciated the insight into life, both in Liverpool, in general, and as an asylum seeker. Finishing the book, more than ever, I felt empathy to asylum seekers. The more you know, the more you can understand. Murphy does us all a service here. She tells us how life really is and makes immigration far much more than a mere statistic batted about between political parties in the Commons.

We read and we see something we could not achieve through other media. We get involved and we start to understand; we get to want something better. This time not just for us, but also for those who legitimately seek refuge on our shores. We repel the criminals and welcome the victims. The problem that abounds and one which Murphy uses in her plot is this: who is really a victim and who is really a criminal? I have not felt so involved in a book in a long while. I have not felt new characters to be so real, so quickly, in a long time. I don’t think I‘ve ever felt so punched in the gut as I did with one scene in this book. That was one scene which marked both some terrific writing in situ, and also some very excellent writing in bringing the reader up to that point.

The Dispossessed is a remarkable read. It’s the best crime fiction novel I read in 2005, even though 2005 is not quite finished yet and the competition was tough, from a handful only, but what a good handful!

I haven’t been quite so impressed with a book since I returned to the UK in the summer of 1993 and read Minette Walters’s The Scold’s Bridle. That led me to a two book backlist and first edition hard back buying thereafter. The same will happen now, I tell you. I only hope that Jeff Rickman and his team are in for a long series. Personally, I think that, ultimately, this series could, indeed should, make it to our screens. But do read the books. The Dispossessed is a class act. Margaret Murphy’s writing is a class act. And, as I have already said, The Dispossessed is most definitely the best read I experienced in 2005.

To find out more about the series, other books and the author, go here.

Call the Dying – Andrew Taylor, another in the Lydmouth series…

After my last read, I sought some respite from a dark, dark world, so I hit the latest in the Lydmouth series from Andrew Taylor – Call the Dying. Can a novel with at least one murder ever really be a “cosy” though? Oh yes, it can. It’s almost always foggy in Lydmouth in Call the Dying; it’s that time of year. So, if you’d like to be reminded of your fortune, i.e. that you live in the present and have a crime free life, I’d suggest you curl up with this book.

This series is set in the 1950s, in and around the Anglo-Welsh borders town of the fictional Lydmouth. (Which is surely based very closely on Lydney?) The 1950s can so often be overlooked given the immediate post war years and the swinging sixties that followed; so it is really good to have a series that brings that period to life. Taylor makes it more so, due to the fact that his main characters are both outsiders to the area and we see that closed community through their eyes.

The main character is the married Richard Thornhill; dedicated copper by working hours, dedicated and loving father outside those working hours. The secondary character is journalist Jill Francis, who investigates a local story so very close to the police investigation and provides Thornhill with an ever increasing element of temptation.

I finished Call the Dying, faster than I’d anticipated, within just over a day. We have a cast of characters, a society experiencing turbulence for many reasons, and a series of personal and business problems that all draw the reader in. Indeed, it takes until over 100 pages before we actually have a body, but a body is delivered within the grand scheme of things; there are many crimes to be investigated here. This is Lydmouth facing a crisis, or so the “other newspaper”, The Post wants to tell us.

Jill has been absent from Lydmouth for a few years, having returned to London to pursue her career, where it seemed to matter most. The proprietor of The Gazette, the local rag, is taken ill and Jill returns to help out in very stressing circumstances. Richard, who is now the father of three had suspended all contact with her when she left, thus, when they meet again, bitterness fights with old passions, some not entirely spent.

This is a classic murder mystery whodunit. Andrew Taylor again delivers the goods. He always keeps me guessing to the very end, where one twist is never enough for him. Call the Dying has less twists than usual but it kept me guessing again, until the very end.

Call the Dying is a very satisfying read, even if I think that the final resolution was not the usual standard from Andrew Taylor. But then, he has previously set the goal posts so very, very high, that I am quite happy to suspend some disbelief here.

Call the Dying ends on a note that makes me want the next in the series PDQ. I am pleased to say that I read on his website that he is currently working on it. See here for more, in his words, on Call the Dying and the other books in, what is in my thoughts, a very excellent series: http://www.lydmouth.demon.co.uk/frames4.htm

Once under the skin of the characters, it is easy to be enthralled by this series, wherever you start. I recommend the whole series and I’m looking forward to reading the next book.

Note 1: To date, there are seven books in this series. Each individual novel is worth a big bite, and after it, I’m sure you’ll be reaching for the whole pie. I did not read them in order and that is not a loss to the series.

Note 2: Andrew Taylor’s “The American Boy”, (“An Unpardonable Crime” in the US), was featured in the “Richard & Judy” TV show book club in the UK, and was also short listed for more than one award in the UK as well as the US.

Note 3: I love the Lydmouth series and friends of mine have also loved the Roth trilogy.

The Third Person by Steve Mosby

This is the first time, since I have posted my thoughts on books here, that I have a mixed response to a novel. This all due to personal preference and not the writing, therefore I’d urge you, if reading this post, to stick with it, until the end.

As part of the Orion New Blood book promotion, The Third Person was described by Orion as “A dark, uneasy and brilliant debut crime novel”.

Amy Sinclair walked out on her boyfriend Jason Klein leaving a note that said “This isn’t some kind of ‘dear John’ letter. I’m coming back again.” But, Amy did not come back again. Initially, Jason respected her need for space, but as time elapsed that respect turned to worry and fear, so he followed her trail, starting on the internet, where he discovered she had a secret life and was in contact with the most horrific people.

Jason works out that one of those individuals took Amy and, at risk of losing his job, he spends time in a chat room baiting the man until he can set a trap.

This is indeed a visit to the dark side, a very dark side. I read the book only having read the blurb on the cover and I did not read any reviews until I had finished it. I discovered that The Third Person has a couple of themes in the plot that are not to my taste. So why did I read on then? Well, because above all else, this a mystery I wanted to see resolved; a good mystery, at that.

I became a tad confused someway into the novel and finished it wanting some confirmation. Therefore, I think it’s helpful if you know in advance of reading, that this is not just a novel with a contemporary theme, it is also set at some point in the future, a time period which is not disclosed in the novel. I’d estimate that this may be up to 50 years hence, and if it is, or if the time gap is even smaller, then God help us. This is set at a time when the police force is now back in public ownership having been privatised at some earlier point. Eek!

A purely personal preference here, but I don’t like my reading set in the future. The main reason is that, for me, like science fiction, and unlike a pure contemporary crime fiction novel, gaps can be closed in any way the writer chooses, it’s all up to his/her imagination. I like, prefer and devour the finite world in which we currently live, or have lived.

The crime of rape entered the plot, which is also something I prefer not to read. Rape is always very difficult to deal with and in my reading experience is very frequently handled without the sensitivity and respect the victims deserve. Having said that, Mosby, who was 26 when his book entered the market place, does bring immense sensitivity and respect to the subject matter; amazingly so. But, there is also more than one rape in this story. I found this a dark side that I really didn’t want to spend any length of time within. Perhaps that explains why I read the book so quickly.

So, two themes that put me off my stride, but I did carry on reading. Again, I’d emphasise: there is a mystery here and I wanted to find out exactly what had happened and why.

Mosby is very, very good with prose. He can turn up the velocity, on times, with a pace akin to professionals on a skating rink. Within that, there are excellent passages of probing prose which can sometimes be lost in the general text and the temptation is to skim over them, when really, the temptation should be to read, savour and enjoy, at length and at will.

I also thought that knowledge of Amy’s ultimate fate came way too soon. Thereafter it becomes a prologue before we hit the section entitled “prologue”.

So yes, when I finished it, I concluded this book was not for me. It had a mystery and it had a great pace, but the bases of the story and the plot were not for me. But I may not be alone, I’m sure. Many would like the futuristic element of this book. Many can and could read the sort of story I normally shy away from.

Mosby, as a new writer on the block, has exceptional skill. It just wasn’t a story I’d like to read or enjoy reading.

Seeing that the follow up, The Cutting Crew is also set in the future, but that The Damage Door on which he is currently working appears not, I contacted Mosby, asking him if all his books are set in the future and I wonderfully received the following within his response:

“In all honesty, I never thought of them as being futuristic books in that sense – they’re more alternate worlds than anything else. With The Third Person, I exaggerated certain details, like the advertising and the privatisation of the police force (although that might be predictive, God help us). And it just happened that the world I wanted to write about had that quirky feature where writing takes the places that video and film fill in our current culture. It requires a suspension of disbelief, I know, and The Cutting Crew even more so. Cutting Crew isn’t remotely futuristic, but involves a full-on leap into fantasy/horror three-quarters of the way through. It’s not sci-fi though. They’re both just set in locations that I totally made up, that operate under slightly skewed laws of physics.”

And Mosby raised a very key point within this answer, for his use of writing as a replacement to the way film and video are currently used in our culture creates a highly original concept in The Third Person.

He then went on to suggest, given my sensitivities, that I ditch any suggestion of reading The Cutting Crew and pick up on his third book, The Damage Door, which is not set in the future.

I read The Third Person experiencing page turning efficiency, even though I‘d have preferred not to have dived into that unknown given the resulting plot. I also experienced many passages of excellent and thought provoking prose that made stop and wonder.

For Mosby, this was a damn good debut and evidence of an author with a lot to bring to the world to crime writing. I am looking forward to picking up on book three, The Damage Door, which is neither “futuristic nor strange”. His words. On the evidence of The Third Person, Mosby is an author leading up to the pinnacle of extremely good quality. He is very certainly worthy of an Orion New Blood promotion and he has already brought a second book to the market place. This is good thought provoking stuff from someone so young. Mosby is someone to watch out for, even if I almost hated his debut. “Almost” being the key word here. I almost loved his debut too; but I very definitely hated and hid from the plot themes. That was simply not to my taste. I have to admit he goes where I would prefer not to go in The Third Person. But perhaps that is now my awakening? I’m now old enough to remember “the good old days” and Mosby has just put me on high alert at what might come in the future. Pass the Prozac please…

No, seriously, if you don’t mind a crime novel set in the future and you don’t mind reading about the impact of the most heinous crimes, then I think you’ll find The Third Person a very good read.

And considering I hated the subject matter, The Damage Door is definitely on my “to read” list when it comes out. Mosby is a good writer, bringing excellent characterisation, pace and plotting, and exploring the world we may find ourselves in at some point in the near future.

For more about Steve Mosby and his books, see here.

For some inspiration on what it takes to get into print and get onto the shelves at your local or internet book seller, see here.