Mike Thomas, a former Cardiff police officer turned author,
first came to my attention with his novel A Pocket Notebook, a dark, funny tale
of a firearms officer going off the rails. Next up was his hugely enjoyable
Ugly Bus, literally one of the best books I have read, and one of the few to
feature as its protagonists’ members of the TSG. The Territorial Support Group
is the nearest UK police forces come to having a riot squad, and as such when
it does appear in fiction it’s usually as knuckle dragging simpletons. Both of
these books are well worth a read, Ugly Bus in particular deserving a
recommendation. It is with more than a little excitement that I heard recently
that Ugly Bus has been picked up by the BBC for dramatisation and I for one
will be glued to my TV when it airs.
But what do after penning two original tales? How often can
one come up with something unique? For his third book, Mike Thomas has chosen
to tread the safer ground of the police procedural. This choice is
understandable as it allows him to develop a small group of characters, the
protagonist and a support cast if you will, and flesh them out over a series of
novels. It also allows him to tell a more traditional crime story than he has
so far. Of course this is not without risk. Until now Thomas’s has been an
original voice, one that stood out from the mass of other crime writers with
their serried ranks of police detectives and serial killers. Might he sink into
cliché and pastiche?
Luckily for his fans Thomas delivers. Ash and Bones is a
superior police procedural to much of the opposition. Quite simply it’s a better
story. First let’s look at the plot. A squad of police raid a flat looking for
low-level criminal. Unfortunately, someone else is there and one of their
number is gunned down and killed. The occupant of the flat, the criminal they
were after, is also shot and ends up in a coma. Enter DC Will McReady and his
colleagues in the CID. It’s Will’s first day and he’s frustrated to have a bit
part in the murder investigation, shunted onto other cases with a colleague,
Sergeant Charlie Becks.
Of course Will, who has various problems at home, isn’t
willing to take this and is determined to insert himself into the centre of the
action. This might sound predictable, the cop with the dysfunctional personal
life playing maverick, but Thomas is too smart a writer to play that trick.
While it’s true that Will manages to bend the rules and uncover leads that
others have risked it’s not without cost. There are consequences to his lone
ranger antics and his superiors first bollock him and later punish him for
doing so. Also his actions have real negative effects and at one point an
officer alongside him gets seriously hurt in direct consequence of him
disobeying orders. Real police work is teamwork and while the author gives his
protagonist leeway to pull the narrative along, this is never forgotten in this
tale.
The other thing I liked is he avoids what I consider the
lazy device of the serial killer. In my opinion far too many crime writers have
a serial killer in their novels. And not just a serial killer, one who kills in
outlandish and byzantine ways. As well as being cheesy and completely
unrealistic, I’ve always found these tales - the writers of whom seem to enjoy
just a little too much penning scenes of young women being tortured and abused
- sensationalist and salacious. Thomas forges a different path. His tale
revolves around some nasty criminals but they’re not the lazy creations of most
writers. And while there is violence in this book, descriptions of bodies which
have been tortured and butchered, it’s never titillating.
In fact, the author has managed that rare beast: a crime
novel that is both hugely enjoyable whilst also trying to say something. The
reader feels like they get an insight into the coal face of policing in modern
British city, the nature of organised crime, the jaded cynicism of some police
officers whilst others (in this case Will and Sergeant Becks) try to keep hold
of their humanity.
In conclusion this is a really good read and an impressive
start to a new series. On Amazon it’s listed as Ash & Bones (Will McReady
1) so I guess we will revisit Will and Co in the future. I hope it’s soon and I
will be reading.
5 stars