Colin Falconer is nothing if not versatile.
His many books (several of them series) cover a vast range of subjects and locations.
But these two of his books, which make up the DI Madelaine Fox series, are the ones that stand out for me.
Set in North London, the crimes that Madelaine and her team called upon to solve are horrific, and graphically detailed, not for the squeamish. The police procedural novel has come a long way since the more innocent (or restrained) ‘cozy’ mysteries of the 1930s.
But the real interest of the books for me lies in the fractured, complex relationship between Madelaine and her boss, DCI Marenko.
It’s a shame the series didn’t progress further, and I’m surprised they weren’t turned into a TV series, although ‘Prime Suspect’ covered a lot of similar ground.
But they’re well worth reading, even though you’ll end up wishing there were more books to follow.
