Tony R Cox is an ex-provincial UK journalist. The Simon Jardine series is based on his memories of the early 70s - the time of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll - when reporters relied on word of mouth and there was no internet, no mobile phones, not even a fax machine.
For the first quarter of the narrative, retired Detective David Smith is an enigma - a spectral figure. He appears in mentions and asides until his physical presence arrives, and with it comes a long history of police work.
Detective Smith has been a key figure in sixteen previous crime fiction novels. In this outing it feels like a series finale, as though his influence looms large, he is paradoxically peripheral to the narrative. Abandoning retirement, Smith is now a private investigator working in semi-rural Norfolk - where an old death enquiry and inquest verdict is being re-examined,
The author has been described in FT magazine as ‘creator of the greatest fictional sleuth you’ve probably never heard of’. As a novel Some Sort of Justice digs deeply into the real procedures of police investigations, navigating between the fact and fiction that the sub-genre explores.
An inquest is being reopened into the supposed drowning of a peer of the realm. DCI Cara Freeman though tasked to smooth things over and make uncomfortable truths ‘go away’ - she’s a professional having built a team of murder squad detectives that seek the truth [especially in politically sensitive cases] rather than brush awkward matters under-the-carpet.
Though mostly set in Norfolk, as the action unfolds we move to London and the various shadows and deceptions of a gay-bar scene, Parliamentary intrigue and mysterious unmentionably shadowy government agencies.
This novel is the seventeenth in the DC Smith series, which like preceding volumes is a forensic police procedural involving an exhaustive and fascinating trek through the minutiae of the modus operandi of the Kings Lake Murder Squad and the myriad characters that the author deploys.
Peter Grainger self-published 23 books [becoming a multi-million seller] until he was approached by the PenguinRandomHouse publishing group, who are embarking upon releasing the entire D. C. Smith/Kings Lake series. Some Sort of Justice is the first to be released.
