The Price of Darkness by Graham Hurley: A review

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Graham Hurley is a very effective writer of police procedurals. He has a sure feel for the way that police officers think and operate and a succinct method of writing about those things that brings them vividly to life.

The setting for Hurley's Faraday/Winter novels is the island city of Portsmouth off England's south coast and its nearby rival city of Southampton. The city is known to locals by the affectionate nickname of Pompey and that is the name that is often used throughout the novels, especially in those sections that are told from DC Winter's viewpoint. It is a city that has a seafaring history - and present - and is mad about its football team. The city and its surrounding area are major characters in these stories. One can't imagine them happening anywhere else.

Throughout the Faraday/Winter series, a recurring character has been the local crime lord Bazza Mackenzie. The police have tried repeatedly to bring him down but have been notably unsuccessful. A kind of grudging respect has grown up over the years between Mackenzie and DC Paul Winter. They can sometimes be found down at the local pub, having a pint together.

As this book opens, we find that that respect has blossomed. Winter, always the iconoclast and outsider, has finally committed one infraction too many and has been kicked off the police force, the only life he has ever known as an adult and the only thing he is really good at. Soon after being cashiered, he was offered a job by Bazza Mackenzie and he took it! It appears that he has gone all the way over to the dark side. Or has he?

Meantime, DI Faraday and the Portsmouth police are investigating the murder of a high-profile local property developer. The murder was accomplished with meticulous planning with virtually no clues being left behind.

Only a few days later, another murder occurs. This one looks like a political assassination, possibly a terrorist action. A low-level government minister is shot in the head while his car is stuck in a traffic jam. The shooter was riding pillion on a motorcycle which was then able to make its escape.

The two murders appear to be unrelated and are investigated on two different tracks by different teams, but as Faraday and his team investigating the property developer's death dig deeper, they begin to find some troubling connections which lead them to think that perhaps the two are somehow related. But how, exactly? Putting the pieces of the puzzle together is never easy.    

It comes as no surprise really when we learn at length that the whole story of drumming Winter out of the police has been a set up. In fact, he has gone undercover to try to infiltrate Mackenzie's organization. But once in that organization, he finds a level of respect and indeed affection for him that he never found with the police. He then finds that his "handlers" with the police have not been especially forthcoming and truthful with him about just what his stint as an undercover agent will mean to his career. All of which makes Winter begin to wonder if perhaps the best career choice for him is to throw in with Mackenzie for real.

The investigation of the two murders eventually uncovers a heartbreaking tale of personal and political betrayal which will be all too familiar to readers who are aware of the economic realities of the bloodthirsty way that big businesses often work in today's society. The Price of Darkness is at its heart a study of the desperate measures that some people will take when society and the institutions they have depended on let them down.

Graham Hurley weaves a modern tale that seems torn from today's news stories. It's a story with which many of us will empathize. Unfortunately, in the end, he leaves a lot of loose ends. Many of the issues raised in Faraday's personal life are left unresolved, as is Paul Winter's status. At the end, we are left believing as we did at the start of the story that Winter has fully signed on to the Mackenzie regime. But is that really true? I guess we'll just have to read the next book to find out for sure.


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...
Read more

The Investigator by John Sandford: A review

Image
  I have read a few of John Sandford's books in the Prey series featuring Lucas Davenport. This book is a literal offspring of that series. It's the first in a series featuring Davenport's adopted daughter Letty Davenport. Letty is in her mid-20s and a graduate of Stanford. She works for a U.S. senator named Christopher Colles in a desk job but she's bored with her assignments. Then the senator offers her a chance to go into the field as a liaison between his office and the Department of Homeland Security.  In her first assignment in that position, she is sent to Texas along with DHS investigator John Kaiser to try to find out what is happening in regard to thefts of crude oil. The senator is not so concerned about the lost oil but wants to know where the money from its sale is going. Who is selling the oil and what they are doing with the profits? The suspicion is that a particularly nasty militia group led by a woman is involved. Letty and Kaiser head out to Texas, de...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...
Read more