Acts of Violence

Inspector Carlyle #10

by James Craig

Awakening the sleeping dragon...

Smooth expat Michael Nicholson is a fixer, getting on by doing favours for the rich and powerful in booming China. When he makes the mistake of getting too close to one of his clients, the wife of a leading Communist Party official, the ageing Lothario fears for his life as a vengeful husband decides to put his house in order.

So when a domestic dispute from the other side of the world leads to a shoot-out in a luxury penthouse apartment in Chelsea, an ex-cop called Marvin Taylor is one of the casualties. Inspector John Carlyle is little more than a casual onlooker until Taylor's widow turns up, looking for answers. The inspector is drawn into the morass of dealing and double-dealing, much to the dismay of his boss, Carole Simpson, who wants him to focus on Barbara Hutton, a Bloomsbury housewife who may - or may not - be a former German terrorist wanted for a forty-year-old murder...

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 4, 2016

About the author

James Craig has lived in London for more than thirty years, working as a journalist and consultant.

He lives in Bloomsbury with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[audrey]

So very meh, including the dramatic absence of musical references and the complete personality switch by Umar. But these books are holding my shoes on until vacation starts, so I'll take it.

[Paul Allard]

London-based police procedural which is a bit disappointing

Inspector Carlyle gets involved with two high-profile cases as well as a few other matters, personal and criminal. We are introduced to various colleagues and the characters are developed quite well. There’s murder, conspiracy and a host of lesser misdemeanours and he eventually gets to the bottom of most of them with reasonably satisfying results. This wasn’t as good as I’d hoped although the plot moves along at a fair pace. Too many lucky escapes for me.

[Denise]

A good light read. Need to suspend belief in a few places but other parts could have been ripped from headlines (#metoo). I look forward to reading the rest of the series

[David Wyatt-Hupton]

Exactly what you come to expect from James Craig with his inspector Carlyle series. A good page turner that's gritty by nature.