Title: An Accidental Death (DC Smith #1)
Author: Peter Grainger
Stars: 4.25 Stars
Review:
A quirky but very interesting British Police detective story. The main character, DC Smith, is an older man of many hidden talents of which most are unknown to his colleagues. He is not afraid to use unorthodox methods to achieve successful results. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading other books in the series.
I have rated this book 4.25 stars.
I obtained this book from Amazon in Kindle format.
Thank you Frank for you Reviews
The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters. As an ex DCI, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear that some of his superiors wish that he would do so.
The latest trainee detective to work with him is the son of a member of his former team, and together they begin to unravel the truth about what happened to Wayne Fletcher. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes clear that others are involved - some seem determined to prevent it, some seem to be taking too much interest. In the end Smith operates alone, having stepped too far outside standard procedures to ask for support. He knows that his own life might be at risk but he has not calculated on the life of his young assistant also being put in danger. He might still get his man but at what cost?
Kindle Edition, 204 pages
Published October 3rd 2013 by Peter Grainger
Although I've always been a reader, I must admit that I first got into crime novels via television series such as Morse and Frost. It seemed odd at first, reading about characters that I had only watched before, and I found that I didn't always agree with what the producers and scriptwriters had done - but then I probably am one of life's disagree-ers.
Having independently published three novels on Amazon's Kindle, I decided that my next project could be a crime novel of my own. In some ways it was easier to write than my general fiction, the conventions of the genre making some decisions straightforward, but I still spent a lot of time developing the characters in 'An Accidental Death'; to me, character comes before everything else in fiction. The subsequent novels develop the original characters as well as adding plenty of new ones.
I think that Smith himself is a recognisable individual. He is old-fashioned in some ways and has a sense that he has been left behind as the police force is modernised. He makes mistakes, too. And yet his wealth of experience and the understanding of people that stems from that experience mean that he is still able to pursue the wrongdoers intuitively, when more conventional methods fail. He is far from the first fictional detective to have these qualities, of course - there is nothing new under the sun. In the end, though, I grew to like him enough to perhaps give him some more case to solve soon.
The other three novels? I published them under a different name. They are not crime fiction at all but as several readers have said that they would like to take a look, I will now list them here: 'Afon', 'The Rink' and 'Asher' by Robert Partridge. Under the same name, you can also find a set of short stories called 'Paris and Other Love Stories' Sorry but my author page won't let me post direct links.
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