Death Stalks Kettle Street – John Bowen, Createspace, November 2016
Taking the cosy mystery into the twenty-first century, this astonishing novel is an absolute must for fans of modern crime thrillers, lovers of Agatha Christie, and those who delight in characters that differ from the norm. So out with the hard-drinking anti-social detective with the haunted past and the trail of broken marriages, and a huge, happy welcome to Greg and Beth.
Greg’s got OCD. And I don’t mean “did I leave the hair-straighteners on” OCD, I mean utterly debilitating, life-changing OCD. Beth has cerebral palsy and a lifetime conditioned to the responses she expects to receive from people once they spot it. Not your average sleuths, not your average heroes. But so much better than anything you’ve come across before.
You’ll get to live with these characters, to know and love them, to experience their bitter disappointments and rare triumphs as they race against time to convince the police there’s a killer on the street, and figure out who that killer is before they strike again. You’ll be turning mug-handles with Greg and delving into your own creative processes with Beth even while you’re trying to finger the culprit. You’ll tear through this book and finish it drained and thrilled in equal measure, enthralled with a book that’s about humanity and its limitations as much as it’s about murder and its execution.
I cannot praise this book highly enough. There’s a month still to go, but for me, best book of 2016 is already closed and Death Stalks Kettle Street is walking away with the prize.