Full Marks

by Neal James

Dennis Marks thought he had seen it all. That was before Solomon Goldblum crossed his path - after that, things were never the same again. The trauma which the old Jew had inflicted upon him had brought about a near psychological collapse. That the DCI had been able to conceal the fragility of his mental state from the shrink whom the Met had forced him to see had been down to his sheer determination. Now, all of that effort was about to be challenged by one of the most daunting figures at New Scotland Yard - Superintendent Eric Staines. The Independent Police Complaints Commission were about to take Marks' life apart, professionally and personally, and Staines, as one of its fiercest inquisitors, was not a man inclined to show mercy. A month was all that the DCI had to prove his innocence of a range of charges dating back to his days as a detective sergeant. A career spent putting away the dregs of London's criminal world was to hang in the balance, and he was, he believed, for the first time...alone.

294 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 2013

Reviews

[Lucy Pireel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a crime novel and a very good police investigation story. I loved the way the author shows us a couple of murder investigations by using them in an internal affairs inquiry concerning the main character. But it’s not only police work, there’s human interest thrown in the mix, we get to feel for the characters as their lives, loves, and other personal affairs are shown as backdrop to the police work.
The author uses detailed knowledge on a multitude of topics, and incorporates them into the story in a way that gives the whole a ‘real’ feel. But every now and then he does misses the mark a bit. For example when he mentions going to Belgium and visiting Roermond. Which is a city in The Netherlands, close to the Belgium and German border but still a Dutch city. Another thing that tripped me up was the mentioning of Dick Whittington as if everyone is supposed to know who that is. I don’t and I had to google the man to understand the referral to him. Then there was the meerschaum. The what? That’s exactly what I mean, how is the non pipe smoking reader to know that a meerschaum is a pipe? The thing is a crucial instrument to show a character’s mannerism, but only after a few times being mentioned as the meerschaum, the author remembers it might be handy to convey that it is a pipe.
Apart from these little slip-ups this is a way of showing the life and adventures of a policeman and how things work behind the scenes of the force. I enjoyed the alternating of present time internal affairs investigation, case-notes, and past actual case investigations.
Would I recommend it? If you like watching CSI, inspector Morse, and the likes, you’ll love reading this book.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as part of the early reviewers program on librarything. I find the story jumped around and was a bit hard to follow in places, but overall I really enjoyed the story.