There aren’t being any bad books in this series, this is pretty exceptional for such a long running series. I’m never getting the feeling that Hill has started daydreaming and is writing with his eyes shut which happens with other writers, usually long before book ten.

There are many anti-fans of Ellie Pascoe, it seems everyone can’t stand her, but she seems both harmless and realistic to me. I thought perhaps it was television-Ellie that drove people nuts as I’ve only glimpsed that version of the character myself but I’ve found people who’ve only known book-Ellie who don’t like her either. I was warned that Ellie does things in this book that make her rather unlikeable so I was prepared for her to do something dreadful here.

I’m pleased to report that I still like Ellie. She does several rather silly things in this book but I think that they are in character and if anything I like her more for not doing what she perhaps ought to do, or thinks that she ought to do, all the time.

The plot here concerns a Yorkshire mining village and is set not long after the miner’s strike of the eighties. By now I don’t need to comment that Hill weaves a good plot, I can take it for granted that he won’t let me down.

One device I don’t much like is used here: the first chapter is a teaser for something that happens later in the book (very late in fact). This seems unnecessary to me though it didn’t quite spoil the book. Perhaps if this was the first Hill you read it would keep you reading if there wasn’t enough action up front for you. Mainly I think Hill is above this kind of gimmick though.

Something which I very much like here is how well the story is intertwined with past books and especially with its immediate predecessor Child’s Play.