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Adrian Magson's titles always sound like something off a 1950s pulp thriller bookshelf. And occasionally the books come across like he thinks he's writing one of those, with foxy chicks, cool dudes and villains from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Magson can tell a good tale, and his stories always seem to contain more than a hint of overseas menace. This time out his fifth book in four years featuring journalist Riley Gavin and former military policeman Frank Palmer there are some scary eastern Europeans on the rampage in London. As the book opens Riley is called out to a crime scene in Essex where a young woman's body has been dumped and she recognises her as a former girlfriend of Palmer. The military cop-turned-PI sets out to find the killer and to stay one jump ahead of the police. Riley, meanwhile, is offered an assignment writing a profile of controversial businessman Kim Al-Bashir. But something doesn't smell quite right about the job, and the more she digs, the more she puts herself in danger. As usual, Magson has produced a slick page-turner that will keep you gainfully employed for an afternoon. But I can't help wishing he'd cut down on the quantity and do something about the quality namely doing more with the characters. At times they feel like inconveniences getting in the way of an efficient plot. If you've come lately to this series, rest assured you haven't missed any back story. Riley and Frank are just as we found them in book one flimsy creations with no discernable life outside of their jobs. And that's a shame, as fully-realised characters would turn a competent series into something much more memorable. The irony is that Magson has done slightly more with some of the fringe characters, like Ray Szulu, than he has with his leads. NO KISS FOR THE DEVIL, which is firmly rooted in London, sports some odd glitches quite why a UK writer has someone wearing pinstripe pants is beyond me (especially since a slip like that is likely to make a British reader who wears his pants exclusively under his trousers snigger!) And what about 'skivvies' and 'go get'? Maybe Magson has been reading too many of those American pulp novels . . .
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, August 2008
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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