The Portsmouth Connection

Well, I have now finished my first Graham Hurley book that I referred to on an earlier blog.  Set around Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight - both places I have been to and really enjoyed.  I started this series of books part way through the list - so I can go backwards or forwards to explore more of the characters and subplots.  Each book is a story in its own rigght - but it seems as if relationships and sub-plots cotinue between stories. 

The main characters were detectives of sorts - Farady (a regulation methodical cop) and Winter (a history of breaking the rules, taking shortcuts - but getting his man).  In this book, Faraday was focused on the Isle of Wight trying to solve the mystery of the headless corpse that floated onto the island - and flashes to the Bosnian war.  Winter was after his own man on the mainland - who was reputed to have knocked someone off around the same time as the headless man met his end.  One would have thought that this would have been the connection.... but....

During all of this, Winter was battling with a brain tumour and falling in love with a high class prostitute - Maddox (I wonder if she will be around in the next book???)  Faraday - who has a deaf son making his way in the world - had his own touch of romance (his partner??? was off visiting Australia) with the grand-daughter of a Psychic (will this develop?) with links back to a WW2 possible murder.  

The murder investigations were quite understated in an English sort of way - and kind of fizzled at the end.  The underlying story lines of the two men (who did talk by phone and then a visit at the end of the book) was the real story - entrapping the reader into caring for both - and their muddled lives.

In reading about the later books - I saw that in one book Winter and Faraday were described as being on opposite sides (of the law?) - so I see there is more interaction between them to come - and more character development.  So I can see myself downloading more Graham Hurley books onto my kindle and spending more time in South England.