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Jump to navigationJump to searchRunning Amok (DCI Spearing and DI Devlin Series Book 2) by Paul Hughes (view source)
Revision as of 16:36, 20 May 2018
, 16:36, 20 May 2018no edit summary
When I reviewed [[Beginning to End by Paul Hughes|Beginning to End]] I said that there were a couple of elephants in the room and I'm afraid that they haven't moved. Dialogue is wooden with a dreadful low point when Devlin chats up a woman. I cringed. The book also needs professional copy editing and proofreading to clear away the spelling mistakes, punctuation problems, random capitalisation of common nouns, formatting errors and anachronisms. There's an over reliance on descriptions of clothing to the extent that I began keeping five-barred gates of who had polished their shoes. As with ''Beginning to End'' it's particularly frustrating: whilst Paul Hughes might struggle in certain areas he ''can'' plot with the best of them.
Don't attempt to read the book as a stand alone: you really need to have read the first book in the series if you're going to understand what's going on: most of the same cases are still ongoing in one form or another. ''Running Amok'' is a continuation , with the cast of characters barely having time to draw breath between books. Inspiration has been taken from what really was happening in 1967 and Hughes neatly blends all the plot lines together. Corruption, both in the Met and MI5 obviously takes centre stage but there's a sensitive look at the changing laws on homosexual relationships. I liked that one of the regular characters is in a same-sex relationship and that strong women feature by virtue of their own achievements.
The ending is a stunner: I really didn't see it coming. It's the sort of cliffhanger which leaves you enquiring as to when the next book will be available. I'd like to thank the publisher for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
