A Killing in November: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month (DI Wilkins Mysteries)

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The plot worked for me. Again - what do you expect from this genre? Everything simple, straightforward and believable? Not me. The first book in an Oxford-set crime series of surprising twists, troubled pasts and a dynamic duo who are brought together by a mysterious murder investigation.

The actual murder which the storyline is built around is an interesting one and involves the reader in various side issues, including the misuse of academic power, sexual harassment, possible terrorism links and always the discomfort of Ryan with the privilege around him. The author does an excellent job of creating two well defined detectives, who each have their own issues to deal with and who complement each other well. Ryan has a genuinely warm and moving relationship with his young son and a tendency to think creatively, which is let down by his inability to control his mouth or his anger. A Killing in November is an Oxford-set crime series of surprising twists, troubled pasts and a dynamic duo who are brought together by a mysterious murder investigation. The provost has friends in high places and complains loudly to them, so within a matter of hours Raymond – suave, sophisticated and considered a safe pair of hands – has taken over the murder investigation, with Ryan demoted to deputy. The men are chalk and cheese. Raymond goes by the book, one step at a time, and Ryan, for all his aggression and rudeness is an instinctive policeman, capable of making inspired jumps of logic. The story is a good one, too. There are several possible avenues to consider, including possible jihadi action, straightforward theft, sexual harassment and so on. Each is, in its own way, well considered and I found it an involving and in places an exciting read. The two central characters are perhaps a little overdone, but they are interesting studies nonetheless, both flawed in their own way and with plenty of messy stuff left unresolved, rather than the trite little Life Lessons which so often pollute this kind of portrayal. As you might have noted, both detectives have the same surname. which is how a mistake is made at the beginning when it is Ryan who is called to the scene of a murder at Barnabas College, the victim a woman who has been strangled in the Provost's study. There had been a dinner in the honour of the controversial billionaire Sheik al-Medina, with his history of human rights abuses at home and atrocities in other countries. The anxious Provost had been hoping to elicit funding for the new Institute for Peace Studies, only to be disappointed in what turned out to be a disastrous evening. As you might imagine, Ray and Ryan have little in common, chalk and cheese, and initially struggle to get on, but slowly they begin to form a bond, Ryan might well be a wild card, but he notices details and is able to make breaks in a complex and intriguing case, where it takes some time to identify the murdered woman, and which involves a valuable stolen Koran, and another death.Jag råkade se en tidigare recension jag skrivit flasha förbi i Goodreadsflödet, och kunde därmed landa i hur jag skulle inleda även denna:

The author (or perhaps the publisher) seemed to want to emulate the Morse novels but this book just isn’t in the same league. Again this was possibly just the publisher, but the novel seems to be ripe for adapting into a TV drama, especially because the author keeps referring to Ryan as ‘trailer trash’ which is a purely American term I enjoyed A Killing In November far more than I expected to. It’s well written and well structured so that I found any implausibilities and familiar tropes perfectly forgivable. Mostly we found this to be pretty contrived and full of painful cliches. We could see a mile off how the story was going to develop but in the end it was a really superfluous character who committed the crime. We’d all really bought in to the red herrings and thought it was definitely something to do with terrorists so it was nice, in a way, to be surprised by the ending, even if it was still a bit random The domestic abuse storyline was really well done – this part felt very atmospheric and frightening and could have been expanded into a book by itself First of all, thanks to the publishers for sending us copies of this so we could all read the same book for a change. It's Book 1 in the series and we loved it!

Customer reviews

So, slightly to my surprise, I can recommend this as an entertaining read and a promising start to a new series. I’ll certainly be looking out for the next one. Rich Oxford is not Ryan's natural habitat. St Barnabas' irascible Provost does not appreciate his forceful line of questioning. But what was the dead woman doing in the Provost's study? Is it just a coincidence that on the night of her murder the college was entertaining Sheik al-Medina, a Gulf state ruler linked to human-rights abuses in his own country and acts of atrocity in others? When a woman is found strangled to death in an Oxford college, these two are thrown together to solve the crime. Their methods are different and their styles are different. Neither likes or apprecites the other but they do like the way they can solve crimes together. Rich Oxford is not Ryan's natural habitat. St Barnabas's irascible Provost does not appreciate his forceful line of questioning. But what was the dead woman doing in the Provost's study? Is it just a coincidence that on the night of her murder the college was entertaining Sheik al-Medina, a Gulf state ruler linked to human-rights abuses in his own country and acts of atrocity in others?