Wild People

DS Glyn Capaldi Mystery #3

by Ewart Hutton

A DS Glyn Capaldi Mystery

DS Glyn Capaldi is in hospital recuperating from concussion and the after-effects of a car crash.But, worse than that, a young woman is dead. She was the passenger in the car, whom he was bringing in for questioning following a night operation in a remote rural location.Glyn is initially riven with guilt and self-recrimination. Until he starts to question the possibility that it may not have been an accident. But, if not, who had been the target? Had he made an enemy capable of achieving that level of planning and implementation? Or, if not him, what could a young woman have possibly done in her short country life to warrant that degree of retribution?Glyn, on sick leave, has time on his hands to explore the background to these questions, and, in doing so, confronts a conspiracy that envelops arson, torture, blackmail, and leaves a clutter of bodies that further muddy the already murky waters.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Audiobook

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 27, 2014

About the author

Ewart Hutton was born and raised in and around Glasgow before slipping south to university in Manchester, and then on to diverse occupations in London. He has won numerous awards and prizes for his radio plays which have been produced for BBC Radio 4, RTE, and Radio Clyde. His stage play The Making of Forfar Athletic's Austrian Supporters Club won the joint Traverse Theatre and Scottish Television Enterprise's Comedy Play Competition, and his play Letters from Ezra was a joint winner of the Croydon Warehouse Theatre's International Playwriting Festival. He now lives on the Welsh Marches with his wife Annie. Good People is his first novel.

Reviews

[David Quick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Q

Third one I've read and just as good as the others. The USP is the main character who solves cases in very unorthodox ways, is always in some sort of trouble but emerges more or less intact. It was also very funny in places with some cracking one liners.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fast-moving police procedural with a likeable main character. Reminded me a bit of Stuart MacBride’s novels. Got a little bit confused later on by the intricacies of the plot, but very readable and I plan to tackle the other 2 books in the series.

[Vijayakumar Belur · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the humour. Though the plot is convoluted, it keeps you reading. End is a let down. It lacks the finesse.

[Sue Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

)

[Erix · Rating 2 out of 5]

说不看了结果又听了一本这个，还是不好，不喜欢男主角。

[Kristin Gibeault · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing plot with way too many characters to keep track of.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 3rd book of the series begins in familiar territory. DS Glyn Capaldi is still banished to a small village in Wales & still ostracized by most of its inhabitants. What's new are the broken ribs & bruises he sustained in a car accident that took the life of a young woman he was transporting to the police station.
Glyn is devastated & unable to accept the official version. So with medical leave in hand, what else can he do but dig into the life of the deceased girl.
The promotional blurb above gives you the gist of the plot. Just be prepared before you start...you won't take kindly to interruptions. It's a fast paced suspense story with lots of twists, narrated by Glyn with his signature dry & self deprecating wit.
We ride shotgun with him as he tries to figure out who had a motive. Just when he thinks he has it sussed, another secret is revealed that dumps him firmly back on square one. And it's not like he has a lot of time. Galbraith, his long suffering boss, just wants him to stay out of trouble. And although he starts out with a group of people to question, lately they've been dropping like flies. If this keeps up there will be no one left to interrogate.

To be honest, after I read the first book, I wasn't sure I'd continue but I'm glad I did. They just keep getting better. It's almost as if the author has hit his stride with this character & is comfortable with his voice. Glyn's running commentary is full of humour & casual observations about his little part of the world. The result is a tightly plotted police procedural that will keep you on your toes while delivering laughs along the way.

There are many returning characters mixed in with drug dealers, MET officers & villagers in this story. His old friend Mackay plays a large role as Glyn ropes him into some not-quite-legal activities. And the interactions with his boss are particularly entertaining. During their "chats" you get the feeling Galbraith can't decide whether to be amused or kill him.
By the end, most of the loose ends are tied & Glyn seems to have finally accepted he won't be invited back to headquarters any time soon. But Mr. Hutton isn't done with us yet. On the last page he tosses out a comment that ensures I'll be in line for book #4.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Capaldi returns for his third outing in mid Wales. In this one he is involved in a car accident where a young woman dies. His police colleagues say it's a standard accident but Capaldi thinks it was a professional hit. His subsequent investigation whilst on sick leave leads him in various directions. I have grown very fond of Hutton's novels and find Capaldi a worthy addition to the annals of fictional detectives. Although his leaps of deduction are somewhat mind boggling, these stories are entertaining which is surely the priority.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hutton was born in Glasgow and now lives on the Welsh Marches which gives you a hint that this is one of those mystery writers who is going to give Americans an exotic locale. He has also written award winning radio plays and his first book in this series (“Good People”) got a lot of positive attention. In this third book in the Glyn Capaldi series, Capaldi finds himself in a hospital recovering from a car crash in which his passenger died. The question finally becomes was the accident actually a murder?

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as a "Blind Date with a book" from my local library, there were a shelf of books covered in brown paper so you didn't know what you were getting - there only being a comment written on the paper. This one said "more stings in the tail than a bag of scorpions" which is a quote from Val McDermid written on the back cover of the book.

I enjoyed it and as it happens is the type of book I like so was a good blind date. Lots of twists and turns in the crime and also love.

[Rosie Claverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another solid instalment in the Glyn Capaldi series. A shame the author doesn't appear to be writing them anymore.

Big kudos to Iestyn Arwel's narration too. That man can really bring a book to life.

[Julie]

This book featured DS Glyn Capaldi, hald Italian and half Welsh. Set in Wales. the DS is a maverick cop on sick leave but carrying out his own investigation into the deaths of some teenagers - a complicated plot and well worth reading.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved all of his books, and hope he is going to write many more.

[Margaret Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gutsy, brainy, out- of- favour detective protagonist in this taut, cleverly imagined plot is a character with depth , cunning and compassion. The dialogue is snappy and smart. The setting-- mid-Wales, where the names of all the small villages are unpronounceable, the cops see their London counterparts as haughty snobs, and crime solving is a colourful enterprise. This was a great read!