Original Skin

Starred review from March 18, 2013
Sophisticated plotting, in-depth characters, and sharp dialogue elevate British author Mark’s gritty second police procedural featuring Yorkshire Det. Sgt. Aector McAvoy (after 2012’s The Dark Winter). In the port city of Hull, a former industrial center on the decline, Det. Supt. Trish Pharaoh and her detectives look into the escalating attacks on Vietnamese cannabis farmers by brutal rival gangs. Meanwhile, McAvoy is distracted by the year-old apparent suicide of Simon Appleyard, a gay man who had been frequenting sex parties with his self-loathing best friend, Suzie Devlin. McAvoy believes that Suzie may be a murderer’s next target, and her unique tattoos are a clue. Mark expertly brings together the two seemingly unrelated investigations while weaving in McAvoy’s devotion to his young family and sensitivity to the Roma background of his wife, Roison, whose extended family becomes involved in his inquiries. Fans of John Harvey and Peter James will find much to like. Agent: Oliver Munson, A.M. Heath (U.K.)

March 15, 2013
A police detective's curiosity discloses a connection between some nasty cases. Alas for DS Aector McAvoy's lovely gypsy wife and two small children: The shy, ginger-haired Scot's boss, Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh, who runs the Serious and Organized Crime Unit, calls him away from his family because she needs his help with a series of murders and tortures caused by a fight for control of the local marijuana trade between the Vietnamese gangs who currently run it and a ruthless group trying to take over. Their patch, the East Yorkshire city of Hull and vicinity, has suffered for years, since the time when it was home to a profitable fishing fleet. McAvoy finds a cellphone that makes him return to the death of Simon Appleyard, a young man involved in kinky sex groups--a death that had been written off as a suicide. Soon after Pharaoh gives McAvoy permission to check out Appleyard's death, she winds up in the hospital after she's attacked by dogs belonging to someone connected to the new gang. Although McAvoy would rather be home with his young family, his sense of justice pushes him forward. Unfortunately, his investigation leads to some powerful local politicians who are risking their careers by indulging in sexual behavior as risky as Appleyard's. While McAvoy and Pharaoh cautiously investigate the powerful politicians and the dangerous drug lords, Appleyard's best friend, a young woman who joined him in the dark world of no-holds-barred sex, is targeted for death. McAvoy's second (The Dark Winter, 2012) is an excellent police procedural featuring sex, violence and complex characters who are quirky but likable.

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May 1, 2013
Mark's atmospheric debut novel (The Dark Winter, 2012) introduced Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy and the economically depressed city of Hull, England. The massive Scot is a fine copper, yet he sorely lacks self-confidence. His guv, smart, earthy Detective Superintendent Trish Pharoah, knows that her job is to marshal the egos and neuroses of the Serious and Organized Crime Unit, and Aector is her biggest challenge. The plot of Original Skin mixes a spectacular spike in violence by a drug gang, city and police politics, travelers, and murder in the world of swingers and doggers who connect online and then meet for anonymous, illicit sex. The many-tentacled plot is held together by the large cast of complex, multidimensional characters, including a detective at the end of his psychological rope; the ambitious head of the civilian police commission, who has an eye on a seat in Parliament; and a young, tattooed swinger grieving the loss of her only friend. Mark's gift for developing characters is matched by his evocative portrait of downtrodden, rain-swept Hull.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)