coming to a bookstore near you soon: Taking Pity, by David Mark

9780399168215
Blue Rider Press/Penguin, 2015
324 pp

hardcover (thank you to the publishers!)

Taking Pity is book number four in David Mark's ongoing series featuring Aector McAvoy.  I don't read a lot of series novels any more, but there are a few authors for whom I'll make an exception. David Mark is one of them.

Before I get into the meat of this book, let me say this. I am happy that I read the previous novels in this series before taking this one on, because not only do the characters continue to develop from book one, but this book picks up only a few months after the one before it, Sorrow Bound. The fallout from what happened at the end of that book continues in this one, and it ain't pretty. McAvoy's boss Trish Pharoah is working on trying to track down the criminal organization known as the Headhunters, who have slowly been muscling their way into taking over smaller organizations. When the smaller guys refuse, or balk, they find themselves with their hands stapled to their knees.  In the meantime, McAvoy is living in a small motel room with his son, and his boss  hands him what should be an easy task. It seems that fifty years earlier, a quadruple murder was committed;  the perpetrator, Coles, was caught at the scene, ultimately found not fit to stand trial, and locked away under the Mental Health Act. Now the Home Office is demanding that if Coles is found "mentally fit" after all this time, he should stand trial for his crimes.  McAvoy's job is to ensure that if Coles ever makes his way to court, that the case will be "tied up swiftly and without embarrassment."   In the course of his investigation, however, McAvoy runs into some information that will not only alter the known facts of the case, but will also bring this old case into convergence with things in the present day.  All because of just one act of pity ....

In my opinion, this is the best book of the entire series. It is a very good and balanced mix of police procedural and crime thriller (which I normally detest, but there are individual exceptions here and there -- rare, but they do exist), added to which are the personal stories of the main characters.  It's bleak as bleak can be, and ends on a great note -- a kind of unspoken promise that these people will return.  In fact, this book is almost like one of those big blockbuster novels where the forces of darkness are sort of lining up and getting organized to do battle with the good guys -- except for one thing. It's really tough to tell who the good guys actually are. Things aren't as cut and dried as one would think -- and that's a very good thing.   My only complaint (and I defy anyone to say it's not valid) is that the author gives away some information towards the middle that makes one of the big, twisty reveals as the story is beginning to come to a close not so big any more. It's like by the time I got there, I had already figured things out.

However, if that's the worst thing I can say about this book, then that's not so bad. Frankly,  I don't understand why David Mark is not more widely read -- his work is solid, intelligently written,  his people are realistic and he's so very good at bleak and intense that it's hard to put his books down once they're picked up. And he's twisty. I do love a good twist here and there, and he is really quite good at it.  If that's your cup of tea, I'd definitely recommend his novels, but please, do yourself a favor and start with book one. You will miss so very much if you don't -- the story that I think is going to appear in the next book started with the first one and has continued on through, so take the extra time to pick up his other books for your own good.  Trust me...you will not be sorry.

Original Skin, by David Mark

9780399158650
blue rider press/Penguin, 2013
427 pp

(my copy from the publisher -- thank you!)

Last November when I read David Mark's crime fiction book called  The Dark Winter , I was surprised at how very good it was for a first novel. Now, with  Original Skin, Mark has kicked things up a few notches to create an even better second series installment, set in the Hull, West Yorkshire area of England.

 His protagonist, DS Aector McAvoy, is a  member of the specialized squad known as the Serious and Organized Crime Unit under the direction of McAvoy's boss Trish Pharaoh.  The unit is currently under fire from the Humberside Police Authority because of the rise of violent crime statistics, not helped much by the crimes of a gang viciously attacking and torturing smaller growers as a means of taking over their farms and intimidating them. After doing his best to convince the Police Authority committee members that the unit is working hard to solve the case, McAvoy decompresses by  taking a walk along the towpath by the Humber, where a) he sees two people talking that may be committee members, and b) in the water among the litter of supermarket carts, bottles, mattress springs etc., he finds a cell phone and picks it up. Curious, he picks it up, thinking he might be able to fix it.  What he finds on the phone starts another investigation rolling, one that leads to a very clever and rather nasty killer whose first crime, as it turns out,  was written off as a suicide. If what I've written so far doesn't spark your interest (although for serious crime readers it should whet some measure of curiosity), and you're more of a Fifty Shades of Gray type person, you can add  into the mix a young woman with a unique tattoo who belongs to the world of swinging sex parties, sexual submission  and sex for thrills with people she's only met online. 

Keeping the action up over 427 pages in any novel of crime fiction is a tough job, but the author does not disappoint.   With his excellent characterizations, a well-plotted and rather twisty core murder mystery and his look at how the local area is primed for "high crime --  for example, the decline of local industry, lack of investment, lack of "impetus on education," and the geographical "sense of isolation,"  -- all working together harmoniously, the 400+ pages fly by in no time.  My own small niggle here is the amount of time spent with Aector's home life, but that's a personal issue, because I'm more about the crime, less about crying babies keeping both parents awake over several nights. It's all about character development, but I'm an impatient reader.

 While McAvoy is a gentle giant of a policeman and a family man, the author takes him down some very dark paths in this book, so I'd recommend it to fans of more darkly-oriented police procedurals.  While cozy readers may find this book a bit overwhelming, readers who enjoy more serious crime will definitely be glued.  Do not, however, start the series with this novel, but instead with Dark Winter, as things in Original Skin build from the first book.  Overall -- much better than the first book and an intriguing read any serious crime reader will want to read. 

crime fiction from the UK

The Dark Winter, by David Mark

9780399158643
Blue Rider Press/Penguin, 2012
originally published by Quercus, 2012 (UK)
292 pp
(hardcover)

The more crime fiction I read the more I think I'm starting to see it all, but that's not at all the case in The Dark Winter, by David Mark.  Sure, you'll find some of the same character tropes in this novel as you might in any other, but the original premise of this book,  the main character and the setting are the things  I found most appealing here. Without giving away the show,  I definitely haven't seen this plotline around before, and it's a good one. I think this author definitely has a future in writing.

The action of this novel takes place largely in and around Hull, West Yorkshire, where Aector McAvoy is a detective sergeant with Humberside CID. McAvoy is a cop with a troubled past. Because of him, a senior officer was relieved of his duties and other crooked cops were "scattered ...to the four winds," but what actually took place is kept under wraps within the department. The officer's dismissal and McAvoy's involvement have made Aector the target of some of the other officers' derision; refusing to take a transfer that would remove him from all of this only made things worse for him. Now on the Serious and Organized Crime Unit, he now serves in a more administrative, ambassadorial kind of role, and his inner mantra runs something like "be the gentle soul...Keep your head down. Get on with your job. Earn a wage. Love your wife."

 It's just coming up on Christmas and McAvoy is out with his little son Fin while his wife Roisin does some shopping. They're sitting at a cafe and McAvoy is captivated by the sound of a choir in nearby Holy Trinity church. While he's listening, lost in thought, from the church comes screaming, the sound of "terror unleashed." He reaches the church just in time to watch a figure emerge from the doors carrying a knife -- which is promptly raised against him. As the man flees, someone yells "He's killed her. She's dead. She's dead!" The victim is a young girl dressed in a white choir cassock, half of which is saturated with blood, killed in front of everyone during the service. However, the case is going to be handled by acting Detective Superintendent Trish Pharaoh, while Aector is sent out on a mission to break the news of a man's death to his sister, the wife of the vice chair of the Police Authority. But when McAvoy's visit to the vice chair's wife leads him to suspect that something is not at all right with the manner of her brother's death, he can't help but to get involved.  As more people begin to turn up dead, he slowly begins to discern a connection among these seemingly-random killings, and his own advice about  laying low is laid by the wayside.  Trouble is, can he convince the others, some of whom have already made up their minds who the killer might be?

I came into this novel after much time away from UK crime fiction, and I started it hoping that there would be something setting it apart from many of the other hundreds of novels in this category.  Mark's fresh premise and storyline kept me guessing the entire time, as did his evocation of the economic decline of local industry, his take on the negative sides of journalism and the publishing industry, and especially the character of McAvoy. But as much as I liked this book, and as much as I offer kudos to the author's manipulation skills, there are a few things that made this novel less than perfect for me. First, the obligatory sex scene that has absolutely zero to do with the plot or with character development; second, the clue that cracks this case wide open and leads McAvoy to the killer is based more on coincidence than on detection; finally, the epilogue -- had the author ended the book prior to that short section, even with the coincidental link to the killer it would have finished on a much more realistic note.

In the acknowledgments section, Mr. Mark thanks someone from Blue Rider in part for "believing that American readers would give a damn" about reading his book.  If I'm any kind of judge, they definitely will.  And if this first taste of his writing is any hint of what's to come, they'll be interested in the rest of the series as well.  Super first effort.

crime fiction from the UK