The Silent Killer - Trevor Wood

I was lucky enough to snaffle a proof of Trevor Wood's first book, The Man on the Street, which I reviewed in 2020 just before lockdown -

 https://bookphace.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-man-on-street-trevor-wood.html - 

I can remember thinking I must keep an eye on this guy and check out when he writes another book. But I'm ashamed to say I've only just got around to reading another of his stories. And that is because the good folks at Quercus Books sent me a beautiful finished copy of his current work.  

I find it fascinating to read the debut work of an author and then see how they develop and progress as a writer. The Silent Killer is as an accomplished a piece of work as you're likely to find within its genre. I simply couldn't wait to read on and on. In fact I finished it at about 2:00 am one morning, I simply had to find out whodunnit and how!

But the problem with reviewing crime and thriller novels is the danger of giving something crucial away. So I'll head to the blurb......

'The first in a Newcastle-set police procedural series with a twist. DCI Jack Parker has a secret. He has Early Onset Dementia and he will do anything and everything to keep it hidden from his peers and the criminals he’s investigating.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING. THERE’S NO ESCAPE.

DCI Jack Parker has faced down hardened villains and raving, drug-addled lunatics. He’s disarmed a machete-wielding psychopath and broken devastating news of a loved one’s death more times than he can remember.

With a serial killer stalking the Newcastle streets and one of his closest colleagues lying in the mortuary following a hit and run he thinks things are about as tough as they’ve ever been. But he should know that trouble always comes in threes.

Jack is about to face the biggest challenge of his life, one that will end his career and destroy his family: Early Onset Dementia.

As he does everything he can to hide his deteriorating condition from his family and colleagues, Jack believes that the serial killer is haunted by his childhood while his own memories are built on increasingly shifting sands.

The race against time to save lives, including his own, has begun. 

Whilst staying within the realms of the police procedural genre, this cracking thriller will explore character in depth and with sensitivity, as well as with the author’s trademark dark humour.'

As with Wood's first book, the title has a double entendre which I always find pleasing. And in a sense Jack Parker lives a dual life - the cop and the guy facing a dementia diagnosis - and he tries to keep the two separate.

He's a great character and the story is told from his perspective. He's flawed, screws up from time to time but there's a loyalty and commitment that puts him firmly on the side of good. 

It's a robust book with a substance that you don't always get in a crime novel. Wood seems to have the ability with his characters to show them as people as well as police men and women.  So they become very real and you can identify with them and relate to them. There's the suggestion of an implicit link between us all no matter who we are or what we do which renders the narrative very real. 

Many books in this genre offer you a good story that can have you on the edge of your seat, looking for the clues and seeking to second guess the outcome and very enjoyable they are. But you seldom come away from the story still thinking about the characters and their challenges. Dementia is a very pertinent topic in our times and Wood's treatment is real and compassionate. 

Yet take all that away and it doesn't detract from the novel being an excellent police procedural and a gripping crime story that will keep you turning the pages. Plenty of clues, plenty of red herrings and a pace that carries the reader willingly along. No shying away from the seamier side of life and the brutality that one human can wreak on another. But that's balanced out by a subtle humour and some banter between the characters.

And if you feel a sense of loss as you turn the final page and close the book, fear not, for the door is open for a sequel. This is intended as the first in a series which will be exciting and fascinating to see how life develops for Jack Parker.

My thanks to Ella Patel at Quercus books for my gifted copy.