Death Wore White

Genre: British Crime Novel
Author: Jim Kelly
Grade: B+

The cover is what pulled me into this one -- a lone man walking towards a car in a snow storm. I've lived in the far north and live in what most would consider a "Northern" area now so I know the scene is nowhere as innocent or peaceful as it looks. Anyone who has ever lived in serious snow conditions knows that weather that looks Christmassy can actually be quite deadly. But I digress. . .

DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine are on a somewhat routine mission of retrieving a barrel of toxic waste -- hazardous enough -- when they come across a body in the sea. With snow coming and the tide changing the scene of their crime -- not to add that the barrel of toxic gunk they were tipped about is bobbing along somewhere in the water they are standing in -- the two men work fast to secure their scene. And then they stumble across another. . . . Does their proximity mean a relationship? And why does the body count on a crime they are getting nowhere solving seem to keep rising?

What I loved about this novel is NO SERIAL KILLERS. Yes, odd though it may seem many people are killed for gain or revenge or just plain cruelty without any hint of a psycho in sight. (Well, technically all killers are a tad psycho but again, digression!) The build up is slow but escalates as the novel goes on. And I loved how it built up, piece by piece, layer by layer. Peter Shaw is a great character, a meticulous policeman who makes modern police work intriguing. I loved the fact that this character was routine and by the book, with very few maverick tendencies. And I liked his ability to wait patiently for all the pieces of a puzzle to fall into place -- he used his "gut" but wasn't ruled by it.

Shaw and Valentine have an unusual history and that is delicately explored as well. It involves a case and I loved seeing them bring the same balance from the past that they did to the present. This is one of the few books I have seen that celebrates the modern, PC policeman and shows just what science has brought to the table of crime solving in the last few years. Even though I swore to myself I WOULD NOT BE READING MORE SERIES BOOKS I am of course looking forward to book two in this series. Sigh. Someday I will run across a non series book. Honestly. It's gonna happen any day now.

Tea: English Breakfast Tea.