Falling More Slowly

November 29, 2010
Recently transferred from Southampton, Bristol Det. Insp. Liam McLusky must adjust to a new police team that resents an outsider on their turf in Helton's engaging first in a new procedural series. When a homemade explosive device goes off at a local park, McLusky's superiors at first fear a foreign terrorist attack. But when another bomb explodes inside a makeup compact in a gym locker room, it's obvious the perpetrator is of the homegrown—but still very deadly—variety. While McLusky and Det. Sgt. James "Jane" Austin pursue any leads, however slim, that might reveal the bomber's identity, other members of the CID squad get on the trail of a gang of violent thieves known as the Mobile Muggers. The stakes rise as the bombs, disguised as everyday objects, appear at random throughout the city. By not tying up loose ends, Helton (Rainstone Fall) leaves readers all the more eager for the sequel.

November 15, 2010

Would you recognize a bomb if you saw one?

DI Liam McLusky's first day with Bristol CID starts badly. He wrecks a police car trying to settle a domestic squabble, earning the enmity of Supt. Denkhaus. Then he's given the unenviable task of sorting out who exploded a bomb under a park bench. Was it a one-off prank by kids? Unfortunately, other bombs follow, encased in everyday objects like a lady's compact, a can of lager, a pen, a champagne bottle and a chocolate Easter egg. These innocent-looking objects maim and kill the unwary citizens who pick them up. McLusky's car is targeted, too, ending his genial but tepid romance with a barmaid. While he plods on with the bombings, his station mates, who like him go a tad beyond legal niceties, manage to seize the mastermind and several of the underlings behind a spate of robberies with violence. Their success with the bomber is less complete. Even once they finally succeed in running him to the ground, there's no way of telling how many of his deadly emissaries are left to waylay the citizens of Bristol.

Helton (Rainstone Fall, 2008, etc.) provides a solid police procedural and an engrossing introduction to DI McLusky to boot. 

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Starred review from January 1, 2011

DI Liam McLusky begins his first day in the Bristol Criminal Investigation Department by rescuing a woman from a house that her husband is tearing down with an earthmover. In addition, McLusky destroys his new police car and later is a witness when a park bench explodes, injuring two people. And then his problems really begin. This new series by the author of the Chris Honeysett PI series (Rainstone Fall; Headcase; Slim Chance) introduces McLusky as a risk taker, a thinker outside the box, and someone who solves his cases in mostly unconventional ways. As the well-plotted investigation plays out, the building suspense leads to an edge-of-your-seat ending. VERDICT Fans of Peter James and readers who like British police procedurals will lap this one up.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2010
The first pages of this procedural are fall-about funny as Detective Inspector Liam McLusky, convinced hes right whether he is or not, blunders into his new post at Bristol. He wrecks a squad car while settling a domestic dispute, then jiggers the report to say he was protecting the poor wife. He smokes and drinks too much, is impatient with coworkers, makes a hash of his love life. Then a bomb detonates in a park, and McLusky has a murderous loon to track. A gang of cycle-riding muggers savages pedestrians. McLuskys mood darkens, and so does the novel. Heltons rich, tactile prose conveys the taste of tobacco and Guinness and the look of dying sunlight, but it moves at a pace some may find ponderous. The novels pleasures are offbeat characters, sly gags, and polished wordplay, not the pulse and tension that drive so much crime fiction. For patient readers who like the all-enveloping languor of character-driven fiction, Helton is an author to be watched.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)