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Sheila Quigley has had the rags to riches story so beloved of the media. A grandmother of eight living in a council house in the north east of England, she hit the headlines when she signed a £300,000 two-book deal with Random House. BAD MOON RISING is the second book and in many ways a refreshing change from a lot of standard crime fiction fare. It's ostensibly a police procedural, but that element of it is the least convincing and the least satisfying. What sets this book aside from many others is the fact it portrays ordinary, working class people trying to survive. These people don't have holiday homes in Tuscany, or Docklands apartments in London. They don't even have money for bus fares, get caught by the Social for working on the side, and have to dodge debt collectors and loan sharks. The book is set in the small town of Houghton-le-Spring. The town is on edge, not only because of the forthcoming annual fair, but also because a serial killer appears to be on the prowl. And then a young girl disappears and the potent mix seems set to explode. There's a large cast of characters here and it takes a while to get all all the men straight in my mind. But after a while you start to 'hear' them. The dialogue fairly crackles on the page -- these sound like real people, speaking in regional accents. But don't worry -- those not from the area won't need an interpreter! By the end I wasn't much fussed by the police angle which wasn't all that convincing. I don't believe that a humble PC would be able to give CID and a Detective Inspector the run-around and to do just what she liked. In fact, I don't believe a uniformed officer would have that degree of involvement, even in a small town. DI Lorraine Hunt is the main focus on the police side. What might be a fairly hackneyed private life -- she's back home living with her mum and her mum's much-divorced best friend -- is again made convincing by the characterisation. But the scenes that are easily the most memorable are those featuring Doris, her son Jacko and granddaughter Melanie. These are real characters who leap off the page and who live in the real world.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, January 2006
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