SOMEONE is killing private detective Sam Turner's ex-wives and girlfriends, and doing it in such a way that Sam is getting the blame.
So, in the sixth Sam Turner book, The Meanest Flood by John Baker (Orion, £10.99), Sam has to evade the police -- who are not looking for anyone else in connection with the crimes -- while trying to find the real bad guy himself. The reader knows who the baddie is as John Baker cleverly moves from the goodie to the baddie, to a boyfriend of one of the murdered women and to a woman who has an unnatural attraction to the baddie.
How the four main characters all end up together in a totally believable way is what lifts John Baker from an ordinary author to someone with a real future. Actually there is more than just the story. The characterisation -- even in the side characters -- is also very believable.
Set against the rising waters of the River Ouse in York -- with side trips to Nottingham and Oslo -- The Meanest Flood is written with compassion, wit and almost diabolical cleverness.
Frank Elson
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