I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass

Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: Solid, ok plot, ok characters, which I hope develop more in later works. I agree fully with the other reviewer. The author writes solidly- short, to the point-, not really well like a PD James or other literary style writer, but it's ok for a procedural. The only odd thing about this book is that it seems to have been originally written in the 1980s -everyone is dressed in 1980's clothes, such as suits with vests, track suits, etc. Most people are still using cassettes, and the references to Hill Street Blues and other 1980's pop culture are only offset by occasional disconcerting references to 1990's music, culture and CDs. This does not really work. If it was originally set in the 1980's it probably should have been left there.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Debut
Review: This is a pretty solid debut police procedural with both feet firmly set in the Camden Town area of London. Much like John Havey's Charley Resnick series, the reader follows the professional and personal travails of D.I. Christy Kennedy as he solves a few murders and feels his way though a relationship. Kennedy is decidedly less troubled and dark than Resnick, however. The central case is the murder of the head of a local independent record label who has recently sold out to a major for big money. There's some sort of music insider stuff mixed in, but none of it particularly enthralling in and of itself. It's more fun to watch Kennedy trawl the past and present of the Irish promoter to track down the killer. It moves pretty smoothly, although it'd be nice if Charles managed to make his chapters a tad bit longer (60 chapters over 240 pages = 4 page chapters!), as all the breaks get rather intrusive. His love of music gets the better of him with the rather silly inclusion of song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter (the book's title is that of a Nick Lowe song). These minor annoyances and few bits of a sloppy prose aside, it's a good beginning and I'll definitely look for the next in the series.