TELL NO LIES

San Francisco probation councillor Daniel Brasher is about to leave his job for a lucrative private practice when a note, seemingly left by mistake turns up in his pigeonhole predicting a gruesome murder. As the crimes continue Daniel must try and uncover the identity of the killer before he becomes the next victim.

This is one of the best and most thought provoking crime novels I have read in the past two years. Gregg Hurwitz delivers both a gripping thriller and a telling examination of the sensibilities of wealthy liberals living in the city by the bay.

The taut plot moves skilfully from one surprise to the next, linking the whole narrative to issues of privilege, family tensions and the troubled lives of the offenders Brasher counsels. Hurwitz’s characters are well drawn, believable and in even the most troubled he finds some spark of redemptive possibility.

He also writes with sharp eyed clarity about the, often well meaning, hypocrisy of people who worry earnestly about social problems they are too rich to be touched by. Finding in the operation of the sort of injustice old money manipulated by people for whom charity is just another way of displaying their power a motivation for murder.

This is a clever, thought provoking and genuinely gripping thriller with a profound sense of its place and time. On the strength of this book any crime fan who doesn’t add Gregg Hurwitz to their summer reading list may be in need of therapy.