Killing
Jericho, by William Hussey.
How many Crime novels have you read where the protagonist
is a burnt-out investigator, near the end of his tether but with still-enviable
skills at detecting and smelling rats of all kinds? William Hussey’s main man Scott Jericho is
all of these things, but he’s also of a different stripe: he’s a Traveller – a Pikey, a Gypo, part of
the travelling fairs of Gypsies who still visit different locations in Britain
– and he’s gay.
He also won a scholarship to Oxford, experienced contempt
from every class of student because
he was a traveller, and found love with a fellow student, Harry Wainhouse, who
was the one ray of sunshine in his bleak, unlovely life. Naturally, with his luck, everything eventually becomes unstuck, especially his
precious relationship, and after a time of booze, pills and doubtful employment
in ‘security’ he eventually finds salvation of a sort: as a policeman, causing great consternation
to his travelling family, who don’t take kindly to coppers, who have never
taken their side, even when they should!
His mentor is a Detective Inspector Garris who sees great
promise in Scott’s cleverly deductive reasoning of various crims and crimes,
and for a time Scott Jericho is almost happy in his work, until a particularly
hideous crime involving the burning to death of three small children causes him
to snap and try to beat the perpetrator to death. His punishment is severe, with a degrading
jail term and damages awarded to the perp:
when he is released he is ready to die;
his life means nothing any more – until his old mentor Garris needs his
thoughts on a case which appears to mirror an awful historic event concerning
his own travelling family: three people
have already died in dreadful copy-cat killings of a tragic event that occurred
one hundred and fifty years before.
Nothing accidental or suspicious – all bloodthirsty murders, every one. Scott cannot resist his good friend’s
plea. He will help if he can and all he
can: it’s time to come back to the world
again.
Except that the more he delves into the crimes, the worse
they become, and will he solve the myriad puzzles they present with every turn,
or will he become another victim?
William Hussey comes from a travelling background and
knows whereof he speaks; he has created
a very plausible, flawed hero (who does get the guy at the end!), and there
will be more Jericho novels to come. I
wouldn’t bet the farm on it, but I’m pretty sure you won’t figure out Whodunnit
until that fact is revealed, and you’ll have to keep reading the series (as I
will) to find out if the monster is finally bought to justice. FOUR STARS.
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