The Heights by Parker Bilal

 

When a severed head is found on a busy London Underground carriage, the investigation soon draws in private detective Cal Drake and his partner Dr Rayhana Crane. Drake is a disgraced former Met police undercover detective, while Crane has her own history in intelligence and psychological profiling for the police. It quickly becomes apparent that the head links back to the case that ruined Drake’s reputation and led him to leave the police. A subplot runs along with this main story, as the two PI’s investigate a missing student.

This is the first of Parker Bilal’s books that I’ve read (though I have a few on my ever-growing list of titles on my kindle, which wait for me to get around to reading) and is the second in the author’s Drake & Crane series. It can be read as a standalone and the author gives backstory when needed, but personally, I felt that I would have enjoyed this novel more had I read the first in the series,  The Divinities. That said, I did enjoy this novel and found it compelling.

At heart, The Heights is a gangland/undercover police novel, a sub-genre I tend to enjoy, though I suspect that The Divinities was even more so. Unlike some series, where each novel is a self-contained story, the main story in The Heights is a direct continuation from that of The Divinities. It’s not concluded in The Heights either, so will continue on into a third title. A sense of resolution is given by the subplot, but this series should be seen as akin to a drama such as The Wire or Breaking Bad, where the major story spans a number of titles. Personally, I like this style of storytelling, which makes me even keener to now read The Divinities (I have a copy on my Kindle) so that I can fully appreciate the third title when it comes out.

The Heights is a well-written story with a tight plot and compelling characters. I just have one criticism and it’s a personal bugbear of mine. The author refers not once, but three times, to female uniformed police officers as WPCs. The W for Women Police Constable was dropped a long time ago and female police constables, like their male counterparts, are known just as PC. Unless an author is writing a historical set novel, the use of WPC is just galling. The Heights is a contemporary set novel and so it’s wrong here.

That said, I really enjoyed this book and will make sure to read The Divinities prior to the next instalment so that I can get a fuller appreciation of the complex tale that the author has adeptly weaved.

3 out of 5 stars