Hidden Witness

December 20, 2010
A number of implausibilities, including the failure of the bad guys to finish people off when they have the chance, undercut Oldham's 15th police procedural featuring Det. Supt. Henry Christie (after 2010's Seizure). When two teenage boys on a mugging spree go after an old man in a Blackpool street, their intended victim eludes them, only to be run over multiple times by a car and then shot dead by one of the car's occupants. The boys flee, fearing the gun man will get them, too. The authorities eventually identify the dead man as an Italian gangster. Christie, who was looking forward to a holiday in Venice with his wife, instead stays home to investigate. That Christie takes advantage of his wife's absence to pursue an attractive female coroner may not endear him to some readers. Others may find the revelation of those behind the gangster's killing and their motive too over-the-top.

January 1, 2011

Why did the head of a Naples Mafia family wind up dead on a Blackpool street?

The Volvo runs over the old man, then backs up and runs over him again. Then a man gets out of the car and pumps two bullets in the victim's head for good measure. Mark and Rory, teenage thugs who'd just committed three muggings and tried to make the old man their fourth before he brandished his walking stick and chased them off, watch in stunned silence, then turn to run when the shooter aims at them. Rory goes down and Mark takes off, setting in motion a cat-and-mouse chase. Who'll find Mark first, the killer or DS Henry Christie of the Lancashire Constabulary's Force Major Investigation Team? FBI agent Karl Donaldson gets involved when the car victim turns out to have ordered a hit three years ago that not only eliminated rival Mafiosi but dispatched an undercover FBI plant as well. Torture prevails as the killer stays a step ahead of the good guys until Donaldson realizes there's more treachery at play here than the usual crime-family vendettas.

Oldham (Seizure, 2010, etc.) can out-plot and out-grisly most of his hard-boiled brethren, and he proves a dab hand with the intricacies of male sexual proclivities. He could, however, use a brush-up tutorial in American slang. 

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February 1, 2011

DS Henry Christie (Seizure) must set aside his plans for a romantic getaway with his wife to work on several murders, which occur in one night in Blackpool. Oldham embeds many surprises in his complex story. VERDICT There is nothing soft about Christie or his approach to crime solving. He will appeal to readers of Quintin Jardine and other authors of British police procedurals.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2010
Oldham may not yet have the name recognition of a John Harvey or an Ian Rankin, but his books have the same dark, disturbing grittiness, menacing threat of violence, and flawed heroes. This time Detective Superintendent Henry Christie struggles with a case in which a seemingly respectable Blackpool businessman is hit by a car and then shot. Christie soon links the mans death to an Italian Mob, but then the investigation stalls. Eventually, Christie learns that teenager Mark Carter and his buddy, Rory, witnessed the killing. But the boys have disappeared. At first believing theyve gone to ground, Christie is shocked when Rorys bullet-riddled body is found. The only remaining witness is young Carter, whom Christie knows from a previous case. Keen to find the boy, Christie fears the killers will find him first. Fast-paced action, gripping suspense, and a keep-em-guessing plot will edge Oldham closer to the widespread recognition he deserves.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)