I enjoyed this far more than the first book in the series probably because I knew what to expect this time. These books are certainly crime novels but I don’t think they are great mysteries. Most of the facts in the case are clear to the reader long before they are clear to the characters in the book and the reader’s fun is in sitting back and watching how things will play out.

I notice that when I read Poet in the Gutter (the first in the series) I thought that Sam Turner was my closest fictional detective. I’ve since found detectives closer to Newcastle but I’ve also moved to Yorkshire. But Yorkshire is brimming with fictional detectives and I can name several closer than Sam.

This book was just what I needed to read at the moment, clever and quite dark, at least dusky, without sacrificing humour and full of great characters.