Deadlight

Hurley, Graham

ISBN 10: 0753118939 ISBN 13: 9780753118931

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books, 2003

Synopsis

When Prison Officer Sean Coughlin is found brutally murdered, D.I. Joe Faraday is called in to drive the investigation and he begins to build a disturbing picture of the dead man's life. But as the inquiry progresses, Faraday becomes aware that the trail goes back to the Falklands War. Nineteen lives were lost to enemy action, a tragedy which may - two decades later - mask another murder.

About this title

Review

Graham Hurley's Deadlightstretches the stock assumptions of the police procedural--he is good on the ways in which the preconceptions of the investigating officers can hopelessly contaminate their judgement and the way crucial pieces of evidence can entirely turn a case on its head.

Someone kicked and battered ex-navy prison officer Coughlin until he choked to death on his own vomit--he was not a likable man and part of the trouble for the investigative team is that there are almost too many leads. As prison officer, Coughlin made it his business to mock and humiliate anyone who claimed to be innocent, for example, several of the investigators believe they need look no further than his principal victim. Coughlin adopted a brutally aggressive persona in Internet chat rooms and was hated by his shipmates for being a bully and a rapist--yet there were people who loved him in spite of his awfulness.

This is an intelligent thriller because it remembers that no-one is all of a simple piece--most of the police in Hurley's cast, even his viewpoint figure Faraday, are only marginally less flawed than the villains. --Roz Kaveney

Review

""This is how a crime novel should be written, and it pushes Hurley right to the forefront of British crime writers, which is where he richly deserves to be"" Independent on Sunday"

This is how a crime novel should be written, and it pushes Hurley right to the forefront of British crime writers, which is where he richly deserves to be--INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

About this edition

• Publisher: ISIS Audio Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0753118939
• ISBN 13: 9780753118931
• Binding: Audio Cassette