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DI Peter Shaw & DS George Valentine #1
Death Wore White
At 5.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped - stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road.
At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck.
And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . .
For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise . . .
At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck.
And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . .
For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise . . .
352 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
20 people are currently reading
1163 people want to read
About the author
Jim Kelly
31 books133 followersJim Kelly is a journalist and education correspondent for the Financial Times. He lives in Ely with the biographer Midge Gilles and their young daughter. The Water Clock, his first novel, was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award for best first crime novel of 2002.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
July 22, 2025
I really liked this mystery and am looking forward to reading the next one in the series. Well written with interesting characters and great English seaside settings, I liked trying to piece the threads of the complicate storyline together... a few too many bodies but it was nice to be surprised for a change. I especially like the story line that wasn't solved-- makes me want to run to the library for the next book.
(Reviewed 7/26/09)
(Reviewed 7/26/09)
September 8, 2009
I know that I am no judge of what constitutes good writing, but this book is filled with evocative images. For example, as the inspectors regarded a beach following a snowstorm where a man had been found dead, "sometimes a seagull wheeled, ripping a tiny white tear in the monochrome canvas." Or, "Crews disembarked, pencil-gray outlines working in a bank of falling snowflakes, bristling with rakes and buckets and forks."
As Stephen points out, this is a form of "locked room" mystery.""There's a passenger in the murder victim's vehicle, but she's gone. There's an apple in the murder victim's vehicle, but it's not his. The corpse on the beach is involved in some form of illegal trade in wildlife, and that's gone too. It wasn't a simple inquiry to begin with." A fresh fallen snow, but no footprints. The man who last spoke to the victim suffers a heart attack. And what's with the used spark plugs found in the victim's car? And was there a connection between the people caught behind the victim's car in the blizzard? See Stephen's nice review for a more complete plot summary. Ripping good yarn.
As Stephen points out, this is a form of "locked room" mystery.""There's a passenger in the murder victim's vehicle, but she's gone. There's an apple in the murder victim's vehicle, but it's not his. The corpse on the beach is involved in some form of illegal trade in wildlife, and that's gone too. It wasn't a simple inquiry to begin with." A fresh fallen snow, but no footprints. The man who last spoke to the victim suffers a heart attack. And what's with the used spark plugs found in the victim's car? And was there a connection between the people caught behind the victim's car in the blizzard? See Stephen's nice review for a more complete plot summary. Ripping good yarn.
August 16, 2009
This is a wonderful locked room mystery, except it's not in a locked room at all. When reviewing a mystery one has to be very careful to not give away too much, which is easy to do with a book like this.
The two detectives are a study in contrasts. Peter Shaw is young, by the book, and forensics orientated. George Valentine is older, a smoker with some serious lung issues, and was the partner of Peter Shaw's late father. The problem is, Peter Shaw's father and Valentine were of the school of find the man then fit the evidence. In their last case it blew up in their face, Shaw's father retired, and Valentine was knocked down a grade and sent to the Norfolk coast. Not a plum pick of a job. In their working relationship, Peter Shaw is Valentine's boss. Tensions? Yes, but it doesn't get in the way of the police work. All of this is important, so remember it for later.
The mystery, which I have lifted from the inside flap of the book. On a frigid winter night, Harvey Ellis is trapped on a coastal road--stranded by a blizzard in a line of either cars. Within a few hours, he is dead, viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. The problem is this, there is only one set of foot prints leading up to his truck, and the lady in the second car saw the man who made those tracks walk up, keep his hands in his pocket and walk back past her to his own car. Therein lies the locked door mystery. How could anyone have gotten up there, killed him, and gotten away without making so much as a single footprint?
Meanwhile Shaw and Valentine are down on the beach trying to catch sight of barrels of toxic waste that are floating up on the beach so they can alert the Coast Guard. While they are doing that a child sized raft floats to shore with a dead adult male in it. It is in the effort to try to find a good cell phone signal (the famous dead spot Verizon says does not exist) that DCI Shaw even notices the line of eight cars, which leads to the discover of above mentioned Harvey Ellis corpse.
I enjoyed this book. The only reason I gave it a four star and not a five was the lack of fully developed characters among the other police involved in the book. The suspects all had some development, and guilty party had enough development, but aside from the two detectives, one character was about as cardboard as the next.
Now I don't want to know every single character, no matter how small a part they have, to be fully developed as in, say, an Elizabeth George novel, but I do want something that makes one police-man seem different from the police-woman two seats over in the briefing room.
Now for the details I asked you to remember about that infamous last case which cost Valentine so much. Young Peter Shaw is interested in that last case, looks over the evidence again, and tries to reopen the case. This causes some friction between him and Valentine, who has the case file and is ever so reluctant to release it to Peter...but he does. You see, the person who they had fitted up for the child murder that cost them their careers, has a very eerie reappearance at the end of the book as a lawyer defending a juvenile delinquent who inadvertently caused a disturbed man to commit suicide. In other words, I sure looks like that had the right man after all originally, but their lack of "doing it by the book" got the case thrown out of court.
There are a multitude of things going on in this book, none of them pretty, but all of them are compelling. If you like mysteries. You will like Death Wore White.
The two detectives are a study in contrasts. Peter Shaw is young, by the book, and forensics orientated. George Valentine is older, a smoker with some serious lung issues, and was the partner of Peter Shaw's late father. The problem is, Peter Shaw's father and Valentine were of the school of find the man then fit the evidence. In their last case it blew up in their face, Shaw's father retired, and Valentine was knocked down a grade and sent to the Norfolk coast. Not a plum pick of a job. In their working relationship, Peter Shaw is Valentine's boss. Tensions? Yes, but it doesn't get in the way of the police work. All of this is important, so remember it for later.
The mystery, which I have lifted from the inside flap of the book. On a frigid winter night, Harvey Ellis is trapped on a coastal road--stranded by a blizzard in a line of either cars. Within a few hours, he is dead, viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. The problem is this, there is only one set of foot prints leading up to his truck, and the lady in the second car saw the man who made those tracks walk up, keep his hands in his pocket and walk back past her to his own car. Therein lies the locked door mystery. How could anyone have gotten up there, killed him, and gotten away without making so much as a single footprint?
Meanwhile Shaw and Valentine are down on the beach trying to catch sight of barrels of toxic waste that are floating up on the beach so they can alert the Coast Guard. While they are doing that a child sized raft floats to shore with a dead adult male in it. It is in the effort to try to find a good cell phone signal (the famous dead spot Verizon says does not exist) that DCI Shaw even notices the line of eight cars, which leads to the discover of above mentioned Harvey Ellis corpse.
I enjoyed this book. The only reason I gave it a four star and not a five was the lack of fully developed characters among the other police involved in the book. The suspects all had some development, and guilty party had enough development, but aside from the two detectives, one character was about as cardboard as the next.
Now I don't want to know every single character, no matter how small a part they have, to be fully developed as in, say, an Elizabeth George novel, but I do want something that makes one police-man seem different from the police-woman two seats over in the briefing room.
Now for the details I asked you to remember about that infamous last case which cost Valentine so much. Young Peter Shaw is interested in that last case, looks over the evidence again, and tries to reopen the case. This causes some friction between him and Valentine, who has the case file and is ever so reluctant to release it to Peter...but he does. You see, the person who they had fitted up for the child murder that cost them their careers, has a very eerie reappearance at the end of the book as a lawyer defending a juvenile delinquent who inadvertently caused a disturbed man to commit suicide. In other words, I sure looks like that had the right man after all originally, but their lack of "doing it by the book" got the case thrown out of court.
There are a multitude of things going on in this book, none of them pretty, but all of them are compelling. If you like mysteries. You will like Death Wore White.
March 9, 2011
The name Jim Kelly sounds American to me, in a way that the Australian name Ned Kelly does not. But author Jim Kelly is British, and he has produced a mystery worthy of a series with Death wore White. The descriptions of the two lead investigators on a triple homicide are strong and fully-fleshed, containing those rogue contradictions in character that make the action realistic, and interesting. Other characters are quickly sketched but contain the essence of personality and form. The author uses words the way his youthful Detective Inspector Shaw uses his Forensic Art kit, constructing faces, lives, motives from the heap of choices that surround us.
Death wore White is complicated, and filled with the feints and weaves that a complex set of family relationships can throw at someone observing from the outside. But the coast of Britain in winter, protected by Her Majesty’s Finest, is a fine place to observe the insecurities and failures of the most well-meaning, and the unexpected strengths and grace of the least among us. What I liked best, I think, was the ending. The straight up-and-down by-the-book young DI does something that might seem out of character for him, but not for his partner DS Valentine, nor for his dead and discredited father. So we look forward to the next development in the series.
Death wore White is complicated, and filled with the feints and weaves that a complex set of family relationships can throw at someone observing from the outside. But the coast of Britain in winter, protected by Her Majesty’s Finest, is a fine place to observe the insecurities and failures of the most well-meaning, and the unexpected strengths and grace of the least among us. What I liked best, I think, was the ending. The straight up-and-down by-the-book young DI does something that might seem out of character for him, but not for his partner DS Valentine, nor for his dead and discredited father. So we look forward to the next development in the series.
April 22, 2016
Comincio a pensare che se non ci fossi io ad abbassare la media delle stellette, su Goodreads tutti i libri sarebbero da 10 e lode. :-D
Persino questo “giallo” che propone paragoni di questo tenore:
La neve cadeva a Burnham Market come tante vecchie banconote candide da cinque sterline
Avrei anche potuto capire il contrario, ossia che una manciata di banconote lanciata da un balcone ricordasse la neve. Ma che la neve faccia venire in mente le banconote, mi pare un’idea che sarebbe potuta venire solo a Paperon de’Paperoni.
E non demorde il signor Kelly, perché più avanti aggiunge anche:
Il contenuto cominciò a espandersi, come un film al rallentatore di un’orchidea che si apre. Rosso, oro e porpora. Foglie che si srotolavano. Shaw ne prese una e la tenne sospesa contro la luce. Una banconota da cinquanta sterline. Capovolse il barattolo e, facendo leva, tirò fuori varie mazzette che cominciarono a distendersi sul letto sporco come tanti fiori esotici.
Prima la neve e poi i fiori esotici … sì, decisamente deve avere una parentela stretta con Paperon de’Paperoni.
E non è che si riscatti neppure quando si distrae un attimo dal pensiero dei soldi:
… giaceva nella vasca, le membra contorte in un intrico agonizzante.
Ma se il soggetto in questione è morto stecchito da un pezzo, come fa a essere “agonizzante”?
Giusto per bontà d’animo sorvolo sul fatto che:
L’acqua del mare era stagnante come il mercurio.
Vabbè, soprassediamo sullo stile, che non è il massimo neanche per un romanzo poliziesco, e passiamo alla trama. Per buona parte del narrato, il ritmo è di una lentezza esasperante. In compenso, però, acquisiamo una notevole e utilissima conoscenza sui diversi tipi di tosse che affliggono il compagno di squadra dell’ispettore Shaw, George Valentine. Tosse secca, tosse catarrosa, tosse che scuote le spalle, per non parlare dei diversi e inquietanti sibili che escono dai suoi polmoni di inveterato fumatore.
Poi, improvvisamente, l’autore si riscuote. Probabilmente la moglie deve avergli tirato una gomitata della madonna in un fianco per non farlo abbioccare, perché comincia a snocciolare via nomi, situazioni, fatti, cause e concause, assassinî recenti e passati, motivazioni possibili o probabili, alibi e contro alibi. E il lettore, che a quel punto era ormai anche lui ridotto in stato di semi catalessi, senza ricordarsi più una mazza di chi fosse questo o di chi fosse quello e di dove si trovassero e a che ora, prende tutto per buono e si dichiara d’accordo su qualunque cosa, purché la si faccia finita una buona volta, perdio!
Ma il signor Kelly non la fa finita. E no. Il signor Kelly, ormai completamente sveglio e pimpante, ci schiaffa lì un ultimo fatterello cruento, per cui, se si vuol sapere come andrà a finire, bisognerà acquistare il prossimo romanzo e magari anche quelli successivi.
Per quel che mi riguarda, mi tengo la curiosità. Anzi, farò di più. Decido io, d’ufficio, che il responsabile verrà trovato, processato, giudicato colpevole, messo in galera, la chiave della cella gettata in mare e così et voilà:
Persino questo “giallo” che propone paragoni di questo tenore:
La neve cadeva a Burnham Market come tante vecchie banconote candide da cinque sterline
Avrei anche potuto capire il contrario, ossia che una manciata di banconote lanciata da un balcone ricordasse la neve. Ma che la neve faccia venire in mente le banconote, mi pare un’idea che sarebbe potuta venire solo a Paperon de’Paperoni.
E non demorde il signor Kelly, perché più avanti aggiunge anche:
Il contenuto cominciò a espandersi, come un film al rallentatore di un’orchidea che si apre. Rosso, oro e porpora. Foglie che si srotolavano. Shaw ne prese una e la tenne sospesa contro la luce. Una banconota da cinquanta sterline. Capovolse il barattolo e, facendo leva, tirò fuori varie mazzette che cominciarono a distendersi sul letto sporco come tanti fiori esotici.
Prima la neve e poi i fiori esotici … sì, decisamente deve avere una parentela stretta con Paperon de’Paperoni.
E non è che si riscatti neppure quando si distrae un attimo dal pensiero dei soldi:
… giaceva nella vasca, le membra contorte in un intrico agonizzante.
Ma se il soggetto in questione è morto stecchito da un pezzo, come fa a essere “agonizzante”?
Giusto per bontà d’animo sorvolo sul fatto che:
L’acqua del mare era stagnante come il mercurio.
Vabbè, soprassediamo sullo stile, che non è il massimo neanche per un romanzo poliziesco, e passiamo alla trama. Per buona parte del narrato, il ritmo è di una lentezza esasperante. In compenso, però, acquisiamo una notevole e utilissima conoscenza sui diversi tipi di tosse che affliggono il compagno di squadra dell’ispettore Shaw, George Valentine. Tosse secca, tosse catarrosa, tosse che scuote le spalle, per non parlare dei diversi e inquietanti sibili che escono dai suoi polmoni di inveterato fumatore.
Poi, improvvisamente, l’autore si riscuote. Probabilmente la moglie deve avergli tirato una gomitata della madonna in un fianco per non farlo abbioccare, perché comincia a snocciolare via nomi, situazioni, fatti, cause e concause, assassinî recenti e passati, motivazioni possibili o probabili, alibi e contro alibi. E il lettore, che a quel punto era ormai anche lui ridotto in stato di semi catalessi, senza ricordarsi più una mazza di chi fosse questo o di chi fosse quello e di dove si trovassero e a che ora, prende tutto per buono e si dichiara d’accordo su qualunque cosa, purché la si faccia finita una buona volta, perdio!
Ma il signor Kelly non la fa finita. E no. Il signor Kelly, ormai completamente sveglio e pimpante, ci schiaffa lì un ultimo fatterello cruento, per cui, se si vuol sapere come andrà a finire, bisognerà acquistare il prossimo romanzo e magari anche quelli successivi.
Per quel che mi riguarda, mi tengo la curiosità. Anzi, farò di più. Decido io, d’ufficio, che il responsabile verrà trovato, processato, giudicato colpevole, messo in galera, la chiave della cella gettata in mare e così et voilà:
July 14, 2009
There's nothing better than a well-executed version of one of the good old staples of crime fiction - a twist on the locked room scenario.
DEATH WORE WHITE is the first in a new series from CWA Dagger Winner Jim Kelly, an author well known for his ongoing Philip Dryden books. DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine are a good pairing - Valentine the older cop, ex-partner of Shaw's father, his career has seen higher points. Shaw, on the other hand, is a rising star, keen to prove himself and to clear his father's, and consequently Valentine's, reputations over the last case they both investigated. Despite what sounds like a pretty predictable scenario (and let's face it - most of everything's been done before), Shaw and Valentine rub along together as you'd expect the old buck and the young upstart to do for a while, eventually coming to a grudging if not quite respect, then at least understanding.
At the heart of DEATH WORE WHITE there's a very complicated plot which unravels for some aspects predictably, and in others unexpectedly. One of the best parts of this particular locked room scenario is that whilst it's obvious that's what the reader is being confronted with, and therefore there must be more to the initial discovery of the scene, the full story is revealed in a way that the reader can draw some conclusions, maybe completely solve the puzzle. The story is, however, incredibly complicated and some readers might find that it stretches credibility somewhat, having said that, personally I had no problem with the interconnectedness of the entire thing.
The book is really a great story, told well, with a couple of interesting central characters, set in a vividly drawn and ever so slightly quirky setting. Kelly knows how to write good, solid entertaining crime fiction - a bit of a puzzle solver, as gruesome as the killing may be, these books aren't particularly confrontational and characters and the settings are a big part of what he does. DEATH WORE WHITE should appeal to fans of the Dryden series, as well as to readers who are new to Jim Kelly's books.
DEATH WORE WHITE is the first in a new series from CWA Dagger Winner Jim Kelly, an author well known for his ongoing Philip Dryden books. DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine are a good pairing - Valentine the older cop, ex-partner of Shaw's father, his career has seen higher points. Shaw, on the other hand, is a rising star, keen to prove himself and to clear his father's, and consequently Valentine's, reputations over the last case they both investigated. Despite what sounds like a pretty predictable scenario (and let's face it - most of everything's been done before), Shaw and Valentine rub along together as you'd expect the old buck and the young upstart to do for a while, eventually coming to a grudging if not quite respect, then at least understanding.
At the heart of DEATH WORE WHITE there's a very complicated plot which unravels for some aspects predictably, and in others unexpectedly. One of the best parts of this particular locked room scenario is that whilst it's obvious that's what the reader is being confronted with, and therefore there must be more to the initial discovery of the scene, the full story is revealed in a way that the reader can draw some conclusions, maybe completely solve the puzzle. The story is, however, incredibly complicated and some readers might find that it stretches credibility somewhat, having said that, personally I had no problem with the interconnectedness of the entire thing.
The book is really a great story, told well, with a couple of interesting central characters, set in a vividly drawn and ever so slightly quirky setting. Kelly knows how to write good, solid entertaining crime fiction - a bit of a puzzle solver, as gruesome as the killing may be, these books aren't particularly confrontational and characters and the settings are a big part of what he does. DEATH WORE WHITE should appeal to fans of the Dryden series, as well as to readers who are new to Jim Kelly's books.
Want to read
February 4, 2020Synopsis: at 5.15 pm Harvey Ellis was stranded in a blizzard. He was soon dead. The crime scene was melting; the body count was rising.
April 3, 2017
Might have given a 3.5 or 3.75 if I could ... I did think it was a good mystery, even if it lost me there once or twice, lol, and the characters were fairly interesting. And set in the cold so probably a good one for when you're laying hot on the beach.
December 16, 2024
"Death Wore White" - written by Jim Kelly and published in 2008 by St Martin's Press. A line of eight cars is stranded during a blizzard along a short stretch of road. Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and his partner go to provide assistance and the murdered man in the first car starts a snowball of investigation that weaves in and out, involving almost every driver in the line. The plot was interesting, but too cluttered to find much satisfaction from. The atmosphere and writing are dark and bleak - "Another storm lay beyond the horizon at sea, waiting to slide over the coast like a coffin lid." The premise was great, but it didn't pan out for me.
November 17, 2020
I’ve had this book for years and only just got round to reading it! I enjoyed this although it was quite confusing with so many players and I did get a bit lost. All in all though a good read.
January 19, 2021
Het was een leuk boek maar tot de laatste paar hoofdstukken niet echt spannend. Sommige stukjes vond ik een beetje verwarrend, maar het einde was mooi en alles kwam bij elkaar.
November 30, 2020
Non c'è niente di meglio da leggere nel freddo clima novembrino che un bel giallo con una trama "immersa" nella neve. Se poi promette un delitto impossibile, ancora meglio. Per questo ho atteso questo periodo per leggere "Trappola bianca" di Jim Kelly.
Jim Kelly è un autore britannico contemporaneo di gialli, nato nell' Hertfordshire nel 1957. Ha iniziato a scrivere gialli dal 2003, ma solo nel 2008, iniziando una nuova serie di romanzi con protagonista Peter Shaw, ispettore della polizia del West Norfolk, diverrà conosciuto e noto in tale ambito, vincendo il New Angle prize for literature nel 2010 con il romanzo "Death Watch".
"Trappola bianca" è il primo romanzo della serie di Peter Shaw, carismatico investigatore della polizia del West Norfolk.
Il romanzo mescola in modo accattivante il giallo classico-deduttivo e il procedural, con descrizione minuziosa ma non tediosa delle varie tecniche di indagine.
Le vicende della trama si avviano nel 2008, quando Peter Shaw, nuovo ispettore nel corpo di polizia del West Norfolk, assieme a George Valentine, ex ispettore declassato per errori in un caso passato e ora assistente del primo, si trova a Ingol Beach per controllare la zona, dove sono stati avvistati barili contenente materiale tossico. Mentre perlustrano le vicinanze, trovano uno di questi bidoni e chiamano la centrale per rinforzi. Intanto nevica abbondantemente, il clima diventa rigido. Nel frattempo a Siberia Belt, una strada costiera a pochi km da dove si trovano i due poliziotti, c'è un convoglio di auto bloccate da un albero caduto che blocca il passaggio. La neve inoltre, ormai diminuita a pochi e leggeri fiocchi, rende la situazione ancora peggiore, perché impedisce alle auto di fare retromarcia ed uscirsene da dove erano giunte. Tra i conducenti bloccati in quel caos di gelo e gas di scarico, vi è Sarah Baker-Sibley. La donna è irrequieta, sembra aver fretta per qualcosa di urgente. Per cosa, non ci è dato sapere. L'autore si sofferma poi nei primi capitoli nel descrivere brevemente i personaggi di quello strano gruppo, dandoci come dei piccoli flash, che consentono di comprendere le loro vite e le loro personalità. Intanto un vecchio esce sulla strada e snocciola le solite frasi di circostanza alla donna, che è seccata e lo fa intendere. L'uomo si reca dunque verso il veicolo in testa per vedere cosa si può fare, parla col proprietario e torna indietro.
Nel contempo Peter Shaw e George Valentine attendono i rinforzi, ma non se ne stanno certo ad oziare, in quanto scorgono nelle vicinanze un canotto. Incuriosito, Shaw vi si avvicina scoprendo all'interno il cadavere di un uomo. Chi è costui? E cosa ci fa dentro quel canotto da bambini? Ma non sarà l'unico enigma che dovrà risolvere quel giorno: arrivati i rinforzi e trasportato via il cadavere per ulteriori controlli, Shaw decide di vedere cosa stia accadendo in quella strada intasata, cercando di sistemare la situazione. Pensava di dover sbloccare la circolazione delle auto, non certo di imbattersi in un altro cadavere: infatti l'uomo nella macchina in testa si trova sul posto del conducente con uno scalpello conficcato nell'orbita oculare ed è morto da tempo. Ma non è l'unico problema: nelle vicinanze della macchina non vi sono impronte sulla neve, se non quelle del vecchio che ha parlato con lui in precedenza e che, stando alla testimonianza della Baker-Sibley, non si è mai sporto dal finestrino. Allora come ha fatto l'assassino ad ucciderlo senza lasciare impronte? Non può neanche intervistare l'anziano signore, John Bickling Holt, in quanto ha avuto un attacco di cuore e deve essere immediatamente portato all'ospedale. Altri strani fatti sembrano essere accaduti in quella zona: la vittima sembra non essere morta nell'abitacolo ma altrove; uno degli autisti scappa alla vista della polizia e si porta dietro uno strano copri-volante in pelle di serpente. Insomma, c'è molto da scoprire e Shaw, con la collaborazione di Valentine, dovrà lavorar sodo per distinguere la verità dalle bugie nelle testimonianze di sospetti che sembrano ben poco propensi a parlare. Lentamente cominciano ad emergere nuovi dettagli, relazioni insospettate e moventi nascosti e ci saranno altre morti prima che Shaw possa dichiarare che il caso sia chiuso. E dovrà affrontare anche i demoni del passato...
"Trappola bianca" è un bel romanzo giallo, molto gradevole e con uno stile particolare. Jim Kelly costruisce una buona trama ambientata mondo contemporaneo, fornendo un'accurata descrizione delle dinamiche interne della polizia senza scadere in eccessivi tecnicismi, finendo per rendere l'opera pesante e noiosa. L'indagine secondo metodi rigorosi non esaurisce però la narrazione, che si fonda in gran parte sul lavoro deduttivo dei due protagonisti, costretti anche per l'eccezionalità degli eventi ad interrogarsi sulla meccanica dei crimini. Deduzione, indagini, perquisizioni e conoscenza della psicologia umana sono gli elementi fondamentali che Shaw utilizza per venire a capo di questi molteplici enigmi e per cercare di collegare insieme eventi che sembrano sconnessi, pur se concentrati nella stessa zona e avvenuti nell'arco di uno stesso periodo.
Lo stile dell'autore è scorrevole, sebbene in alcuni casi un po' farraginoso: le pagine iniziali sono un po' confusionarie, sia per l'enorme numero di personaggi, sia per l'esiguità di spazio a loro dedicato. Con lo scorrere delle pagine le varie personalità diverranno più chiare e distinguibili, ma si poteva evitare il caos iniziale. Questo ritmo, lento all'avvio, è dovuto anche alla tecnica della narrazione parallela e dalla focalizzazione corale: l'autore narra, alternandoli, due fatti che accadono contemporaneamente in due zone distinte, il rinvenimento del cadavere sulla spiaggia e l'ingorgo a Siberia Belt, e lo fa utilizzando i punti di vista di diversi personaggi che, sì consentono di immedesimarci meglio, ma dato il breve spazio a loro disposizione, finiscono per disorientare il lettore. Questo scoglio però viene superato nel corso della vicenda, quando gli eventi cominceranno ad assumere una piega più precisa e i vari pezzi del puzzle inizieranno a comporsi in un'immagine più nitida.
L'atmosfera dell'opera è buona, con un ottimo uso della suspence, della tensione data da nuovi dettagli che via via emergono e che sembrano complicare ulteriormente la faccenda. Molto gradevoli le dinamiche tra i due investigatori e il rapporto burbero ma affezionato che instaurano tra di loro. L'opera risulta piacevole anche nella descrizione delle dinamiche personali all'interno del corpo di polizia, con focus anche sugli aspetti umani di ogni agente. Seguiamo infatti anche vicende personali di Shaw, che ci appare fallace, pur se intelligente, a differenza degli investigatori infallibili tradizionali. I personaggi poi vengono tutti ben delineati e sono credibili e ben inseriti in un contesto odierno.
Per quanto riguarda l'enigma, la concatenazione degli eventi è molto ingegnosa, la dinamica dei delitti interessante e originale. In particolare ottima è la soluzione del delitto impossibile su neve, scaturito da una serie di circostanze davvero molto peculiari. Jim Kelly è riuscito a creare un plot forte e originale nell'età contemporanea, impresa che non è da tutti. L'opera non può tuttavia definirsi come un giallo classico perché gli indizi son pochi e la verità balza fuori essenzialmente a seguito dei risultati delle analisi forensi, i quali vengono esposti al lettore nel momento stesso in cui Shaw deduce la dinamica dei fatti. Il disvelamento spettacolare finale è assente, sebbene vi siano una serie di plot twist e interessanti cliff-hanger che tengono alta la tensione: la scoperta del colpevole e del suo piano criminale avvengono gradualmente, i tasselli si compongono nel corso delle pagine. Per cui, arrivati a poche pagine dall'epilogo, molti fatti hanno già trovato una loro risoluzione, mentre ne restano altri da interpretare nel modo corretto. Per quanto riguarda la scelta del colpevole, devo dire che mi ha stupito, in quanto ha usato una tecnica particolare che non mi sarei aspettato da un autore moderno.
Dunque, "Trappola bianca" è un ottimo romanzo giallo, che mescola insieme elementi classici con altri più moderni, creando una trama salda e un piacevolissimo delitto impossibile.
Jim Kelly è un autore britannico contemporaneo di gialli, nato nell' Hertfordshire nel 1957. Ha iniziato a scrivere gialli dal 2003, ma solo nel 2008, iniziando una nuova serie di romanzi con protagonista Peter Shaw, ispettore della polizia del West Norfolk, diverrà conosciuto e noto in tale ambito, vincendo il New Angle prize for literature nel 2010 con il romanzo "Death Watch".
"Trappola bianca" è il primo romanzo della serie di Peter Shaw, carismatico investigatore della polizia del West Norfolk.
Il romanzo mescola in modo accattivante il giallo classico-deduttivo e il procedural, con descrizione minuziosa ma non tediosa delle varie tecniche di indagine.
Le vicende della trama si avviano nel 2008, quando Peter Shaw, nuovo ispettore nel corpo di polizia del West Norfolk, assieme a George Valentine, ex ispettore declassato per errori in un caso passato e ora assistente del primo, si trova a Ingol Beach per controllare la zona, dove sono stati avvistati barili contenente materiale tossico. Mentre perlustrano le vicinanze, trovano uno di questi bidoni e chiamano la centrale per rinforzi. Intanto nevica abbondantemente, il clima diventa rigido. Nel frattempo a Siberia Belt, una strada costiera a pochi km da dove si trovano i due poliziotti, c'è un convoglio di auto bloccate da un albero caduto che blocca il passaggio. La neve inoltre, ormai diminuita a pochi e leggeri fiocchi, rende la situazione ancora peggiore, perché impedisce alle auto di fare retromarcia ed uscirsene da dove erano giunte. Tra i conducenti bloccati in quel caos di gelo e gas di scarico, vi è Sarah Baker-Sibley. La donna è irrequieta, sembra aver fretta per qualcosa di urgente. Per cosa, non ci è dato sapere. L'autore si sofferma poi nei primi capitoli nel descrivere brevemente i personaggi di quello strano gruppo, dandoci come dei piccoli flash, che consentono di comprendere le loro vite e le loro personalità. Intanto un vecchio esce sulla strada e snocciola le solite frasi di circostanza alla donna, che è seccata e lo fa intendere. L'uomo si reca dunque verso il veicolo in testa per vedere cosa si può fare, parla col proprietario e torna indietro.
Nel contempo Peter Shaw e George Valentine attendono i rinforzi, ma non se ne stanno certo ad oziare, in quanto scorgono nelle vicinanze un canotto. Incuriosito, Shaw vi si avvicina scoprendo all'interno il cadavere di un uomo. Chi è costui? E cosa ci fa dentro quel canotto da bambini? Ma non sarà l'unico enigma che dovrà risolvere quel giorno: arrivati i rinforzi e trasportato via il cadavere per ulteriori controlli, Shaw decide di vedere cosa stia accadendo in quella strada intasata, cercando di sistemare la situazione. Pensava di dover sbloccare la circolazione delle auto, non certo di imbattersi in un altro cadavere: infatti l'uomo nella macchina in testa si trova sul posto del conducente con uno scalpello conficcato nell'orbita oculare ed è morto da tempo. Ma non è l'unico problema: nelle vicinanze della macchina non vi sono impronte sulla neve, se non quelle del vecchio che ha parlato con lui in precedenza e che, stando alla testimonianza della Baker-Sibley, non si è mai sporto dal finestrino. Allora come ha fatto l'assassino ad ucciderlo senza lasciare impronte? Non può neanche intervistare l'anziano signore, John Bickling Holt, in quanto ha avuto un attacco di cuore e deve essere immediatamente portato all'ospedale. Altri strani fatti sembrano essere accaduti in quella zona: la vittima sembra non essere morta nell'abitacolo ma altrove; uno degli autisti scappa alla vista della polizia e si porta dietro uno strano copri-volante in pelle di serpente. Insomma, c'è molto da scoprire e Shaw, con la collaborazione di Valentine, dovrà lavorar sodo per distinguere la verità dalle bugie nelle testimonianze di sospetti che sembrano ben poco propensi a parlare. Lentamente cominciano ad emergere nuovi dettagli, relazioni insospettate e moventi nascosti e ci saranno altre morti prima che Shaw possa dichiarare che il caso sia chiuso. E dovrà affrontare anche i demoni del passato...
"Trappola bianca" è un bel romanzo giallo, molto gradevole e con uno stile particolare. Jim Kelly costruisce una buona trama ambientata mondo contemporaneo, fornendo un'accurata descrizione delle dinamiche interne della polizia senza scadere in eccessivi tecnicismi, finendo per rendere l'opera pesante e noiosa. L'indagine secondo metodi rigorosi non esaurisce però la narrazione, che si fonda in gran parte sul lavoro deduttivo dei due protagonisti, costretti anche per l'eccezionalità degli eventi ad interrogarsi sulla meccanica dei crimini. Deduzione, indagini, perquisizioni e conoscenza della psicologia umana sono gli elementi fondamentali che Shaw utilizza per venire a capo di questi molteplici enigmi e per cercare di collegare insieme eventi che sembrano sconnessi, pur se concentrati nella stessa zona e avvenuti nell'arco di uno stesso periodo.
Lo stile dell'autore è scorrevole, sebbene in alcuni casi un po' farraginoso: le pagine iniziali sono un po' confusionarie, sia per l'enorme numero di personaggi, sia per l'esiguità di spazio a loro dedicato. Con lo scorrere delle pagine le varie personalità diverranno più chiare e distinguibili, ma si poteva evitare il caos iniziale. Questo ritmo, lento all'avvio, è dovuto anche alla tecnica della narrazione parallela e dalla focalizzazione corale: l'autore narra, alternandoli, due fatti che accadono contemporaneamente in due zone distinte, il rinvenimento del cadavere sulla spiaggia e l'ingorgo a Siberia Belt, e lo fa utilizzando i punti di vista di diversi personaggi che, sì consentono di immedesimarci meglio, ma dato il breve spazio a loro disposizione, finiscono per disorientare il lettore. Questo scoglio però viene superato nel corso della vicenda, quando gli eventi cominceranno ad assumere una piega più precisa e i vari pezzi del puzzle inizieranno a comporsi in un'immagine più nitida.
L'atmosfera dell'opera è buona, con un ottimo uso della suspence, della tensione data da nuovi dettagli che via via emergono e che sembrano complicare ulteriormente la faccenda. Molto gradevoli le dinamiche tra i due investigatori e il rapporto burbero ma affezionato che instaurano tra di loro. L'opera risulta piacevole anche nella descrizione delle dinamiche personali all'interno del corpo di polizia, con focus anche sugli aspetti umani di ogni agente. Seguiamo infatti anche vicende personali di Shaw, che ci appare fallace, pur se intelligente, a differenza degli investigatori infallibili tradizionali. I personaggi poi vengono tutti ben delineati e sono credibili e ben inseriti in un contesto odierno.
Per quanto riguarda l'enigma, la concatenazione degli eventi è molto ingegnosa, la dinamica dei delitti interessante e originale. In particolare ottima è la soluzione del delitto impossibile su neve, scaturito da una serie di circostanze davvero molto peculiari. Jim Kelly è riuscito a creare un plot forte e originale nell'età contemporanea, impresa che non è da tutti. L'opera non può tuttavia definirsi come un giallo classico perché gli indizi son pochi e la verità balza fuori essenzialmente a seguito dei risultati delle analisi forensi, i quali vengono esposti al lettore nel momento stesso in cui Shaw deduce la dinamica dei fatti. Il disvelamento spettacolare finale è assente, sebbene vi siano una serie di plot twist e interessanti cliff-hanger che tengono alta la tensione: la scoperta del colpevole e del suo piano criminale avvengono gradualmente, i tasselli si compongono nel corso delle pagine. Per cui, arrivati a poche pagine dall'epilogo, molti fatti hanno già trovato una loro risoluzione, mentre ne restano altri da interpretare nel modo corretto. Per quanto riguarda la scelta del colpevole, devo dire che mi ha stupito, in quanto ha usato una tecnica particolare che non mi sarei aspettato da un autore moderno.
Dunque, "Trappola bianca" è un ottimo romanzo giallo, che mescola insieme elementi classici con altri più moderni, creando una trama salda e un piacevolissimo delitto impossibile.
January 28, 2013
Death Wore White is the first book of the Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and Detective Sergeant George Valentine series by Jim Kelly, set in present-day Norfolk, England. It features an intricate plot with deep characterizations.
Shaw and Valentine are members of (fictitious) West Norfolk Constabulary, extremely awkward in their new partnership. Valentine had been partner to Shaw’s deceased father, DCI Jack Shaw, up until their infamous last case, in which their handling of evidence was ruled ‘slipshod’. Peter is not entirely sure what happened in that last case, and cannot trust Valentine implicitly, the theme running throughout the book. Although the two detectives grow to respect each other’s abilities during the case, the past remains to haunt them (and guarantees more books to follow in the series).
In Death Wore White, motorists are diverted one winter evening by detour signs from the highway onto the Siberia Belt, where they are blocked by a tree across the roadway. Sarah, in the second car stopped on Siberia Belt, is frantic to pick up her daughter Jillie from school. The elderly man in the Corsa behind her suffers a heart attack. 8 cars total are stopped on Siberia Belt, among them a delivery from a takeout Chinese restaurant, a security van carrying money, a builder’s van, and a teenager driving an expensive sports car.
Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and his partner Detective Sergeant George Valentine are investigating a body in a raft on Ingol Beach, when they notice the stopped cars on Siberia Belt. The driver of the first truck has been murdered. A few days later, a body washes up on Styleman’s Middle (beach). Shaw and Valentine believe the deaths are not coincidental, and carefully probe the connections between all the involved parties, while a forensic expert examines all the evidence.
The driver of each stopped vehicle has a backstory that Shaw & Valentine investigate in depth, as well as the nearby tenant farmer. I recommend Death Wore White to readers who enjoy police procedurals with a wealth of forensic evidence, a complicated plot, and a large cast of characters. Frequent references to UK-specific terms had me relying on Wikipedia to fully understand the context.
Shaw and Valentine are members of (fictitious) West Norfolk Constabulary, extremely awkward in their new partnership. Valentine had been partner to Shaw’s deceased father, DCI Jack Shaw, up until their infamous last case, in which their handling of evidence was ruled ‘slipshod’. Peter is not entirely sure what happened in that last case, and cannot trust Valentine implicitly, the theme running throughout the book. Although the two detectives grow to respect each other’s abilities during the case, the past remains to haunt them (and guarantees more books to follow in the series).
In Death Wore White, motorists are diverted one winter evening by detour signs from the highway onto the Siberia Belt, where they are blocked by a tree across the roadway. Sarah, in the second car stopped on Siberia Belt, is frantic to pick up her daughter Jillie from school. The elderly man in the Corsa behind her suffers a heart attack. 8 cars total are stopped on Siberia Belt, among them a delivery from a takeout Chinese restaurant, a security van carrying money, a builder’s van, and a teenager driving an expensive sports car.
Detective Inspector Peter Shaw and his partner Detective Sergeant George Valentine are investigating a body in a raft on Ingol Beach, when they notice the stopped cars on Siberia Belt. The driver of the first truck has been murdered. A few days later, a body washes up on Styleman’s Middle (beach). Shaw and Valentine believe the deaths are not coincidental, and carefully probe the connections between all the involved parties, while a forensic expert examines all the evidence.
The driver of each stopped vehicle has a backstory that Shaw & Valentine investigate in depth, as well as the nearby tenant farmer. I recommend Death Wore White to readers who enjoy police procedurals with a wealth of forensic evidence, a complicated plot, and a large cast of characters. Frequent references to UK-specific terms had me relying on Wikipedia to fully understand the context.
May 27, 2010
Det. Inspector Peter Shaw and veteran officer, Det. Sgt. George Valentine are sent to the Norfolk, shore to look for containers of toxic waste that police in England suspect are being dumped in that location. While there, the officers discover a dead body in a raft, washing up against the shore. The weather is terrible and blizzard conditions prevail.
Not far away, someone has placed a sign on the main road that due to flooding, motorists should detour to the coastal road. A tree has been cut and is across that road and eight cars are trapped. In addition, someone has killed the driver of the first car in line, Harvey Ellis.
When Shaw and Valentine get to the scene, what perplexes them is that, although Ellis has been killed in a violent manner, there are no footprints in the snow.
D.I. Shaw followed his father, Jack, into the police department. He is currently the youngest detective inspector on the job. He's teamed with the no nonsense, veteran, George Valentine. What adds possible tension between the partners is that Valentine had been Peter's father's old partner. Twelve years prior, Jack Shaw and Valentine made a mistake with the evidence on a case. The judge was very critical of the manner in which the case was handled, and it ended Shaw's career. Now Peter surprises Valentine asking him to tell him about the case and letting him know that he wants to look into it.
This is a well done novel a variation of the locked door mystery. The author's literary style was a pleasure to read and Shaw and Valentine are a fine team, the crusty old vet, under the supervision of the young Chief Inspector, who has a talent for forensics and in dealing with suspects.
My dilemma was that I wanted to find out how the story came out but the book was so fine, I didn't want it to end.
Not far away, someone has placed a sign on the main road that due to flooding, motorists should detour to the coastal road. A tree has been cut and is across that road and eight cars are trapped. In addition, someone has killed the driver of the first car in line, Harvey Ellis.
When Shaw and Valentine get to the scene, what perplexes them is that, although Ellis has been killed in a violent manner, there are no footprints in the snow.
D.I. Shaw followed his father, Jack, into the police department. He is currently the youngest detective inspector on the job. He's teamed with the no nonsense, veteran, George Valentine. What adds possible tension between the partners is that Valentine had been Peter's father's old partner. Twelve years prior, Jack Shaw and Valentine made a mistake with the evidence on a case. The judge was very critical of the manner in which the case was handled, and it ended Shaw's career. Now Peter surprises Valentine asking him to tell him about the case and letting him know that he wants to look into it.
This is a well done novel a variation of the locked door mystery. The author's literary style was a pleasure to read and Shaw and Valentine are a fine team, the crusty old vet, under the supervision of the young Chief Inspector, who has a talent for forensics and in dealing with suspects.
My dilemma was that I wanted to find out how the story came out but the book was so fine, I didn't want it to end.
August 14, 2021
Trappola Bianca è il primo volume di una serie poliziesca che ha per protagonisti l'ispettore Peter Shaw e il sergente George Valentine. Due poliziotti molto diversi e che non vanno molto d'accordo: Peter è giovane, intelligente, pignolo sulle procedure e idealista mentre Valentine è vicino alla pensione, cinico, solitario e istintivo.
Il romanzo è una variante più moderna dell'enigma della camera chiusa, il delitto infatti è avvenuto in circostanze a prima vista impossibili. La soluzione escogitata in questo caso è semplice ma per il lettore non sarà facile arrivarci.
Naturalmente oltre alla narrazione episodica non poteva mancare la trama orizzontale che in questo caso ha a che vedere con il caso mai risolto che vedeva coinvolti il padre di Peter e lo stesso George Valentine (in questo volume è una questione che resta sullo sfondo).
L'ambientazione è la costa settentrionale del Norfolk con la sua atmosfera davvero misteriosa, i personaggi sono ben caratterizzati anche se non sono riuscita ad affezionarmi (ero più interessata al "giallo").
La trama è sicuramente complessa (ci sono vari omicidi) e originale, giusta dose di colpi di scena ma in alcuni passaggi ci sono troppi dettagli che rendono la lettura poco fluida. Inoltre, oltre alla mappa del luogo del delitto, avrei aggiunto anche una lista dei personaggi del romanzo perché non sono pochi.
Una lettura intrigante e allo stesso tempo impegnativa.
Il romanzo è una variante più moderna dell'enigma della camera chiusa, il delitto infatti è avvenuto in circostanze a prima vista impossibili. La soluzione escogitata in questo caso è semplice ma per il lettore non sarà facile arrivarci.
Naturalmente oltre alla narrazione episodica non poteva mancare la trama orizzontale che in questo caso ha a che vedere con il caso mai risolto che vedeva coinvolti il padre di Peter e lo stesso George Valentine (in questo volume è una questione che resta sullo sfondo).
L'ambientazione è la costa settentrionale del Norfolk con la sua atmosfera davvero misteriosa, i personaggi sono ben caratterizzati anche se non sono riuscita ad affezionarmi (ero più interessata al "giallo").
La trama è sicuramente complessa (ci sono vari omicidi) e originale, giusta dose di colpi di scena ma in alcuni passaggi ci sono troppi dettagli che rendono la lettura poco fluida. Inoltre, oltre alla mappa del luogo del delitto, avrei aggiunto anche una lista dei personaggi del romanzo perché non sono pochi.
Una lettura intrigante e allo stesso tempo impegnativa.
May 13, 2015
The blurb on the cover from the NY Times Book Review pulled me in: "Ever since the days of Agatha Christie, the great divide in the British detective story has been between plot and character...which is why the novels of Jim Kelly are something of a find." Add to that -- my favorite -- the impossible crime: Eight cars and their passengers are stranded by a downed tree during a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road. When police arrive, the driver of the lead car is found dead, a chisel in his left eye. How could the killer have committed the murder without being seen by the other stranded motorists, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow? Intriguing first book in the DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine series with plenty of plot twists. Characters are well-drawn inside an interesting setting. I got a little impatient toward the end with the secondary plot line, just wanting the main crime explained, so my only criticism is that I thought it could have been a little shorter than 400 pages. Otherwise, a solid four stars for me, and I will certainly follow this series.
March 7, 2023
Death Wore White was a challenging read for me. Everything kind of came together in the end but too many times throughout the book i got lost and didn’t know what was happening. I found myself flicking backwards to try and figure out who was who and how characters fit in. For me it was just too confusing at times with too many red herrings thrown in. It didn’t help that practically every character/suspect in the story was lying to the police. As a result I kept getting bogged down and it took longer to get through the book. Definitely not a gripping page turner. There seemed to be a lot of descriptions of people and places. Whilst probably rather well written I found i just didn’t care and began to skip past these bits in order to get back to the story. Clearly set up for another book in the series however I won’t be rushing out to get it. Although the plot was a little far fetched I did enjoy the perspective of a British crime/mystery as opposed to the American style books I most often read.
July 5, 2010
Slow reading. Starred reviews for this author from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus. Perhpas only Kirkus for this book. Police procedural - interesting enough main character, Peter Shaw, but very convoluted plot of murder on stranded coastal road with lots of characters, subplot of detective and new partner George Valentine, under a cloud involving detective Shaw's father. They unsuccessfully tried to get new info and open the old case; at end Peter will pursue on his own. Guess there's another book coming!
December 18, 2008
I found the style of writing ponderous. There was some unusual use of words for descriptions that seemed unnecessary (eg "pus-coloured" headlights). I didn't care about any of the characters nor was I really bothered about the outcome. I just wanted to finish it so I could start something hopefully more enjoyable.
March 11, 2012
Rather contrived and stuffed with plot twists just for the sake of it. Not especially well-written, with rather bizarre metaphors, and the characters were rather one-dimensional. Perhaps the creation of detectives of the complexity and depth of Wallander, Rebus and above all, Erlendur has spoiled my appreciation of anything less. I found Shaw decidedly shallow and poorly drawn.
December 12, 2018
The Novel Death Wore White (DI Peter Shaw & DS George Valentine - 1) by Jim Kelly. This is the first series of 5 series. The genre of this novel is crime-detective. in death wore white we find peter shaw and george valentine as the main characters. The two detectives are a study in contrasts. Peter Shaw is young, by the book, and forensics orientated. George Valentine is older, a smoker with some serious lung issues, valentine had been the partner of Shaw’s disgraced policeman father, stumble on a corpse on an inflatable raft on a Norfolk beach, the pair are stuck in a blizzard, their car one of many vehicles blocked by a fallen tree. During this mishap, someone kills Harvey Ellis, the driver nearest the obstruction, with a chisel blow to the eye and manages to escape without leaving traces in the snow. Other bodies surface after the police extricate themselves from the scene of Ellis’s murder. While Shaw and his team try to untangle the lies told them by every witness they encounter, he also tries to redeem his late father’s reputation by reopening the child murder case that brought his father down. Death wore White is complicated, and filled with the feints and weaves that a complex set of family relationships can throw at someone observing from the outside. I did enjoy the writing style of Death Wore White and the main characters were interesting enough for me to want to read more about them.The book is really a great story, told well, with a couple of interesting central characters, set in a vividly drawn and ever so slightly quirky setting.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 29, 2017
At 5.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was trapped - stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road. At 8.15 p.m. Harvey Ellis was dead - viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck. And his killer has achieved the impossible: striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow . . . For DI Peter Shaw and DS George Valentine it's only the start of an infuriating investigation. The crime scene is melting, the murderer has vanished, the witnesses are dropping like flies. And the body count is on the rise.
This is the first novel in this series so I forgave it for being rather slow and having a improbable plot boarding on down right kooky. The characters of Shaw and Valentine are really good and they make a good team. The crusty old vet under the supervision of the young Chief Inspector who has a talent for forensics and in dealing with suspects are actually what carried this novel off and earned it the 3.5 stars. Like all of Jim Kelly's novels that I have read... this one also is very repetitive. It's almost like he has forgotten that he's mentioned this piece of evidence or advise at least five times already. I loved the idea of the plot. It was almost like a closed-door mystery. There was seemingly no way it could have happened but yet it did kind of thing.
This is the first novel in this series so I forgave it for being rather slow and having a improbable plot boarding on down right kooky. The characters of Shaw and Valentine are really good and they make a good team. The crusty old vet under the supervision of the young Chief Inspector who has a talent for forensics and in dealing with suspects are actually what carried this novel off and earned it the 3.5 stars. Like all of Jim Kelly's novels that I have read... this one also is very repetitive. It's almost like he has forgotten that he's mentioned this piece of evidence or advise at least five times already. I loved the idea of the plot. It was almost like a closed-door mystery. There was seemingly no way it could have happened but yet it did kind of thing.
November 30, 2020
It's winter on the northern coast of England. A line of eight cars is stranded on a diversion near the coast road. One man has a heart attack. Another is found dead at the wheel of his truck, viciously stabbed. When DI Peter Shaw investigates, there is only one line of footprints other than his own. No one in the line of cars knows the dead man. One woman is desperate to get to her daughter to pick her up after school. Shaw and Valentine had been nearby investigating a toxic waste canister floating to the beach. While there he also spots a floating child's inflatable raft, which proves to have a body on board.
So they have two dead men. Coincidence? Connected? Who knows?
Very well written. Lots of good descriptions. It made me feel cold all over. One other thing that's important to them that I never have to think about: what is the state of the tide? Will it cover up anything? Or reveal something?
Very interesting detective team. Peter Shaw is a young detective who goes by the book and wants all the forensics he can get. George Valentine is an older detective sergeant who had been Peter's father's partner and was busted from DI to sergeant after a botched case that ended the father's career. It's their first week of working together and they're still learning to work together.
Recommended. Looks like a good series.
So they have two dead men. Coincidence? Connected? Who knows?
Very well written. Lots of good descriptions. It made me feel cold all over. One other thing that's important to them that I never have to think about: what is the state of the tide? Will it cover up anything? Or reveal something?
Very interesting detective team. Peter Shaw is a young detective who goes by the book and wants all the forensics he can get. George Valentine is an older detective sergeant who had been Peter's father's partner and was busted from DI to sergeant after a botched case that ended the father's career. It's their first week of working together and they're still learning to work together.
Recommended. Looks like a good series.
May 25, 2019
Unfortunately I read this in fits and starts. I was able to keep track of the action, but not all of the characters.
This is essentially a locked room mystery, as the murder takes place at a detour road where the road is blocked by a fallen tree and a dead body in the lead vehicle. There are no footprints around the vehicle yet the driver is impaled in the eye with a chisel.
At the same time there is another dead body approaching from the waterfront. The question was were they related or separate incidents? And then there was the body out on the island, buried up to the head in the sand. Shaw and Valentine do not believe in coincidence, so they try to connect the dots with interviews and forensics.
The plotting was excellent but hard to follow at times. I kept having to stop and determine how each of the characters fit into the story.
There were witness statements that just did not fit the facts, and for a good reason.
I selected this author for my reading group this month.
I borrowed a copy from the public library.
This is essentially a locked room mystery, as the murder takes place at a detour road where the road is blocked by a fallen tree and a dead body in the lead vehicle. There are no footprints around the vehicle yet the driver is impaled in the eye with a chisel.
At the same time there is another dead body approaching from the waterfront. The question was were they related or separate incidents? And then there was the body out on the island, buried up to the head in the sand. Shaw and Valentine do not believe in coincidence, so they try to connect the dots with interviews and forensics.
The plotting was excellent but hard to follow at times. I kept having to stop and determine how each of the characters fit into the story.
There were witness statements that just did not fit the facts, and for a good reason.
I selected this author for my reading group this month.
I borrowed a copy from the public library.
May 10, 2019
Il conducenti di una delle otto automobili bloccate da una tempesta di neve in un'aspra località del Norfolk viene ucciso al volante da un misterioso assassino in grado di svanire senza lasciare traccia.
Nessuno degli altri guidatori ha visto né udito niente.
L'ispettore Shaw e il sergente Valentine, intrappolati a loro volta nella tormenta dopo aver scoperto un cadavere trasportato dal mare sulla costa, si trovano a dover districare un caso destinato a metter a dura prova non solo il loro rapporto professionale ma anche quello umano.
Un poliziesco che non mi ha convinto fino in fondo, all'inizio sembrava una trama intricata per via delle molte morti seminate tra le pagine. In realtà troppo presto si scopre la verità, che rimane costante a eccezione di qualche particolare, fino alla conclusione.
Molto più bella e ben strutturata la storia personale che trapela dalle pagine sia dal punto di vista emotivo emotivo sia per quanto riguarda il colpo di scena.
Nessuno degli altri guidatori ha visto né udito niente.
L'ispettore Shaw e il sergente Valentine, intrappolati a loro volta nella tormenta dopo aver scoperto un cadavere trasportato dal mare sulla costa, si trovano a dover districare un caso destinato a metter a dura prova non solo il loro rapporto professionale ma anche quello umano.
Un poliziesco che non mi ha convinto fino in fondo, all'inizio sembrava una trama intricata per via delle molte morti seminate tra le pagine. In realtà troppo presto si scopre la verità, che rimane costante a eccezione di qualche particolare, fino alla conclusione.
Molto più bella e ben strutturata la storia personale che trapela dalle pagine sia dal punto di vista emotivo emotivo sia per quanto riguarda il colpo di scena.
May 31, 2017
Jim Kelly continues as a marvel at precise and pithy imagery, on top of the fascinating plots and unique base set of characters with which he peoples his Norfolk broads universe.
This title proved my belief in just letting a master do what he does best, even if you have no clue how the hell the writer is going to get out of the self-constructed conundrum. This was a fiendishly complex puzzle with a nicely controlled number of characters and layer upon layer of reveal. If a 5.5 rating was available I would post it.
I keep returning to Kelly for the quality of writing and then think, oh yeah, this guy can plot up a storm too for a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing read.
This title proved my belief in just letting a master do what he does best, even if you have no clue how the hell the writer is going to get out of the self-constructed conundrum. This was a fiendishly complex puzzle with a nicely controlled number of characters and layer upon layer of reveal. If a 5.5 rating was available I would post it.
I keep returning to Kelly for the quality of writing and then think, oh yeah, this guy can plot up a storm too for a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing read.
September 30, 2017
Jim Kelly is one of my favourite writers. He offers us original descriptions and images while telling absorbing stories with interesting characters. If, like me, you occasionally feel guilty for spending time reading murder mysteries, then Jim Kelly (along with Donna Leon and Robert B Parker, for entirely different reasons) exonerates me.
This book starts his second series, and having now read several of them, I think I prefer Shaw and Valentine to the original Philip Dryden books. It is a good, atmospheric tale set in a familiar (for me) and well depicted landscape. Not his best book ever, but well worth your time.
This book starts his second series, and having now read several of them, I think I prefer Shaw and Valentine to the original Philip Dryden books. It is a good, atmospheric tale set in a familiar (for me) and well depicted landscape. Not his best book ever, but well worth your time.
Read
June 22, 2025A great local author. I saw him talk about the East Anglian crime genre at the Felixstowe Book Festival. Looking forward to this, even better that is 25p from a library sale, win-win!
The action moves from Ely (Dryden series) to Kings Lynn and the Norfolk Coast, but an equally assured crime 'locked room' mystery. A murder in a snowbound traffic jam, and lots of other deaths and wrongdoings in the fishing, cockling, and smuggling business. Second generation career cop Peter Shaw is an interesting character, with his older partner providing the more grizzled foil to the DCI's methodical policing. Plenty of scope for more from this promising material I think.
The action moves from Ely (Dryden series) to Kings Lynn and the Norfolk Coast, but an equally assured crime 'locked room' mystery. A murder in a snowbound traffic jam, and lots of other deaths and wrongdoings in the fishing, cockling, and smuggling business. Second generation career cop Peter Shaw is an interesting character, with his older partner providing the more grizzled foil to the DCI's methodical policing. Plenty of scope for more from this promising material I think.
April 3, 2016
My friend, Angela, who got me into playing flutes in church some twenty years ago, but whom I've not seen in a number of years, recommended this to me. I'd been commenting (of FaceBook) to someone else from church about the audio book series that were so popular with the two women who ring handbells next to me (the Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny). For some reason, Angela jumped into the thread and recommended this series to me, albeit a readable series. I don't do audio books yet. I don't spend enough time in my car.
Anyway, I snagged a copy from BPL and checked it out. It's an interesting, albeit rather convoluted story. It begins with a bunch of people being directed into a small lane/short cut by a sign claiming the main road was out. They are trapped on one end by a felled tree, and at the other end by a slewed car. So they can't drive out, nor back up. Also, the lane is a mobile dark spot, so they can't call for help. Eventually, the police, who are nearby fishing a body out of the sea, notice their presence and show up to help get them out. They find that the first vehicle in line, a pick-up truck, has a dead body inside. The driver was stabbed through the eye with a chisel. Several other bodies show up in the area, and Detective Inspector Shaw wonders if they're related.
Detective Inspector Shaw has been teamed up with Detective Sergeant Valentine. Valentine was once the partner of Shaw's father. But ten years previously, Shaw's father bungled an investigation. The father was essentially kicked off the force and died a year later. Valentine was demoted and sent to the hinterlands of Norfolk, the northern part of East Anglia, in England, where he languished for a dozen years. So, there's a certain tension between the two.
The problem with the dead guy in the truck, is that it was snowing at the time people got backed up in the blocked "short cut". But there's only one set of foot prints going up to the truck in front and then back again. Those are of the guy who was third or fourth in line. He claims the driver was alive when he walked up to him, and that he had a young-woman passenger with him. The woman who was second in line confirms that there appeared to have been activity in the truck. She saw motion in the cab, and also noted that the sounds in the truck, some kind of loud rock, eventually changed to a slightly more muted radio program. But, the police found only one body in the truck. His passenger, the young woman managed to disappear without leaving a single foot print.
Well, other bodies show up. People are found to be lying. People in the pile up appear to be more related than one first thought, or than they admitted, and so forth. It makes for an intriguing story.
I found several problems with this book. The author keeps trying to soar off into artsy/fartsy flights of description. Rather than being evocative, I found them forced, sometimes inapt, and a distraction. For example, in one place we are told about the dried grasses appearing in footsteps which disturbed the snow. Well, dried grasses might appear if the footsteps are disturbing an inch of relatively wet snow. But only a page or so earlier, we were told there was a foot of snow on the ground. No way a foot step is going to scuff up enough snow that's a foot deep that you'll see dried grasses at the bottom of the foot print. There were other "details" that didn't gibe with settings we'd been given only a few pages earlier. So, neither the author nor his editors were paying much attention when they read the rough draft for editing.
Then, lots of acronyms are thrown around. They might make sense to Brits, but certainly not to us more mundane 'merikans. I'm not sure if this is a problem per se. The book was probably meant to be read only by Brits. But it was a problem for those of us who spent most of our lives on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Finally, I don't think I've ever read an allegedly professionally prepared book with so many typos. In my experience, books produced by professional publishers rarely have even one or two noticeable typos. In the case of books produced by scanning dead-tree manuscripts, and then performing optical character recognition (OCR) to render them into electronic format, you might get a typo or two, but generally not oodles, unless it's a scan uploaded to a place like Archive.org, where no one follows up. Properly produced OCRed books from places like Gutenberg tend to be well enough proof read that only one or two typos show up.
This book, however, had dozens of typos. Given that the book was published in 2008 if seems reasonable that the original manuscript was produced on a word processor and that the e-book version was produced from an electronic manuscript. Apparently, this particular publisher, Minotaur Books, is too lazy to pay editors to check manuscripts (although the author praises a number of editorial helpers in his acknowledgments), or else too cheap to use decent software than can create a useful EBook from a word-processed manuscript. How in the hell is that possible?
So the story itself was rather fun, but the poor quality of the background detail and of the production was not so fun. Hence, what should probably warrant 4*s, gets only 3*s from me. I'm seriously on the fence regarding whether or not I'll try reading another book by Jim Kelly.
Anyway, I snagged a copy from BPL and checked it out. It's an interesting, albeit rather convoluted story. It begins with a bunch of people being directed into a small lane/short cut by a sign claiming the main road was out. They are trapped on one end by a felled tree, and at the other end by a slewed car. So they can't drive out, nor back up. Also, the lane is a mobile dark spot, so they can't call for help. Eventually, the police, who are nearby fishing a body out of the sea, notice their presence and show up to help get them out. They find that the first vehicle in line, a pick-up truck, has a dead body inside. The driver was stabbed through the eye with a chisel. Several other bodies show up in the area, and Detective Inspector Shaw wonders if they're related.
Detective Inspector Shaw has been teamed up with Detective Sergeant Valentine. Valentine was once the partner of Shaw's father. But ten years previously, Shaw's father bungled an investigation. The father was essentially kicked off the force and died a year later. Valentine was demoted and sent to the hinterlands of Norfolk, the northern part of East Anglia, in England, where he languished for a dozen years. So, there's a certain tension between the two.
The problem with the dead guy in the truck, is that it was snowing at the time people got backed up in the blocked "short cut". But there's only one set of foot prints going up to the truck in front and then back again. Those are of the guy who was third or fourth in line. He claims the driver was alive when he walked up to him, and that he had a young-woman passenger with him. The woman who was second in line confirms that there appeared to have been activity in the truck. She saw motion in the cab, and also noted that the sounds in the truck, some kind of loud rock, eventually changed to a slightly more muted radio program. But, the police found only one body in the truck. His passenger, the young woman managed to disappear without leaving a single foot print.
Well, other bodies show up. People are found to be lying. People in the pile up appear to be more related than one first thought, or than they admitted, and so forth. It makes for an intriguing story.
I found several problems with this book. The author keeps trying to soar off into artsy/fartsy flights of description. Rather than being evocative, I found them forced, sometimes inapt, and a distraction. For example, in one place we are told about the dried grasses appearing in footsteps which disturbed the snow. Well, dried grasses might appear if the footsteps are disturbing an inch of relatively wet snow. But only a page or so earlier, we were told there was a foot of snow on the ground. No way a foot step is going to scuff up enough snow that's a foot deep that you'll see dried grasses at the bottom of the foot print. There were other "details" that didn't gibe with settings we'd been given only a few pages earlier. So, neither the author nor his editors were paying much attention when they read the rough draft for editing.
Then, lots of acronyms are thrown around. They might make sense to Brits, but certainly not to us more mundane 'merikans. I'm not sure if this is a problem per se. The book was probably meant to be read only by Brits. But it was a problem for those of us who spent most of our lives on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Finally, I don't think I've ever read an allegedly professionally prepared book with so many typos. In my experience, books produced by professional publishers rarely have even one or two noticeable typos. In the case of books produced by scanning dead-tree manuscripts, and then performing optical character recognition (OCR) to render them into electronic format, you might get a typo or two, but generally not oodles, unless it's a scan uploaded to a place like Archive.org, where no one follows up. Properly produced OCRed books from places like Gutenberg tend to be well enough proof read that only one or two typos show up.
This book, however, had dozens of typos. Given that the book was published in 2008 if seems reasonable that the original manuscript was produced on a word processor and that the e-book version was produced from an electronic manuscript. Apparently, this particular publisher, Minotaur Books, is too lazy to pay editors to check manuscripts (although the author praises a number of editorial helpers in his acknowledgments), or else too cheap to use decent software than can create a useful EBook from a word-processed manuscript. How in the hell is that possible?
So the story itself was rather fun, but the poor quality of the background detail and of the production was not so fun. Hence, what should probably warrant 4*s, gets only 3*s from me. I'm seriously on the fence regarding whether or not I'll try reading another book by Jim Kelly.
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