NEW TOP COP
In a farmhouse on the Camel estuary in Cornwall, a 5-year-old girl finds her parents brutally slaughtered. Fifteen years later the house is deserted and the killing still remains a mystery.
Then the body of a 50-year-old woman is found on a cliff edge in Newquay. DI Andy Tregunna is faced with the task of leading the investigation, but soon personal matters force him to step back.
On compassionate leave and with little else to do than fight his own demons the unsolved case becomes more and more an obsession to him. As he is drawn deeper into a dark world of secrets, lies and revenge, his private investigation collides with his personal life.
The truth is even more sinister than can be imagined …
Review - After a graphic murder scene set fifteen years before, the story is told in a straightforward flashback structure that switches between DI Andy Tregunna and his team investigating the motiveless murder of a seemingly harmless middle-aged woman in Newquay in Cornwall and “present day” scenes of Tregunna in hospital after recovering from a life-threateningly serious operation, the consequences of which affect him in both serious and humiliating and embarrassing ways throughout the rest of the book. This is the relatively young DI Tregunna’s very first time in charge of a murder enquiry and so, on sick leave and feeling adrift without his job to anchor him during his difficult convalescence, he feels compelled to solve the still-unresolved murder on his own time.
What follows is a richly detailed and emotionally affecting murder mystery/police procedural with dark psychological overtones, a sprinkling of suspense, and a few good twists and turns that while taking you by surprise don’t stretch the credibility of the plot, which stays admirably credible till the satisfying conclusion. DI Andy Tregunna is a surprisingly multi-layered and well-rounded character with both heroic and very dark aspects to his character, compelled to solve the case for the victim and her daughter’s sake but struggling with his health and battling dark thoughts on mortality, relationships, his own family problems, and the pressures of his job.
Tregunna is also a refreshingly thoughtful and non-macho male cop – he doesn’t even like football! – which makes a nice change from all the hard-drinking and violent Rebus-type coppers out there. The book is also very well written, with lots of local colour thrown into a nuanced and sometimes even lyrical prose that never overshadows the clarity of the plot or slows the story down.
All in all, Tregunna is a solid, realistically plotted mystery that keeps you guessing. It is narrated by an intriguing, thoughtful cop wrestling not just with a difficult and complex case but also a life-threatening and socially embarrassing illness and is written in a polished, richly detailed and visually descriptive prose style. I would certainly enjoy reading more of Andy Tregunna’s emotionally entangled adventures in the future.
