| Publisher | KIller Reads |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 01 December 2016 |
| ISBN-10 | 0008200963 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0008200961 |
| Format | paperback |
| Pages | 400 |
| Price | £ 13.99 |
Dead Man's Prayer
by
DI Frank Farrell must investigate the murder of a priest – the man who forced him out of the priesthood 18 years previously.
Review
DI Frank Farrell has returned to small-town Dumfries, his childhood home. Eighteen years ago he turned his back on his career as a priest. Now his past has returned to haunt him. A priest is found murdered – and it was Father Boyd who forced Frank out of the priesthood.
Then twin boys are seized from a nursery school. One is found in an abandoned church, but there is no sign of his brother. Farrell is convinced there is a pattern there, but the cases are threatening his precarious mental health.
And that’s the double USP for this new cop – mental health issues and the church. Both contribute to an impressively dark debut from Jackie Baldwin which has echoes of Val McDermid.
Farrell himself is the archetypal maverick, with a tendency to rush in wildly to situations – some of his methods definitely don’t conform to the manual. But he’s got a solid cast around him in the form of good-time girl DC Mhairi McLeod, with whom he strikes up an unorthodox partnership, old friend DCI Lind and his former psychiatrist Clare Yates.
One of the strongest elements of the book is how Farrell deals with his faith, and the mistrust that those around him have for this tangled aspect of his life – the apoplectic superintendant is particularly unimpressed and scathing about it.
Baldwin captures well the small-town paranoia, as well as the suffocating effect of religion. And the characters ring true, including Farrell’s uptight religious mother. Perhaps the only clichéd link is the seemingly obligatory love tension between Farrell and Clare Yates.
Dead Man’s Prayers is dark and tense, with a clever central premise – even if you guess it early on (I had my suspicions), it won’t spoil the action, as Farrell and Mhairi realise they’re in a frantic race against time to save lives.
Then twin boys are seized from a nursery school. One is found in an abandoned church, but there is no sign of his brother. Farrell is convinced there is a pattern there, but the cases are threatening his precarious mental health.
And that’s the double USP for this new cop – mental health issues and the church. Both contribute to an impressively dark debut from Jackie Baldwin which has echoes of Val McDermid.
Farrell himself is the archetypal maverick, with a tendency to rush in wildly to situations – some of his methods definitely don’t conform to the manual. But he’s got a solid cast around him in the form of good-time girl DC Mhairi McLeod, with whom he strikes up an unorthodox partnership, old friend DCI Lind and his former psychiatrist Clare Yates.
One of the strongest elements of the book is how Farrell deals with his faith, and the mistrust that those around him have for this tangled aspect of his life – the apoplectic superintendant is particularly unimpressed and scathing about it.
Baldwin captures well the small-town paranoia, as well as the suffocating effect of religion. And the characters ring true, including Farrell’s uptight religious mother. Perhaps the only clichéd link is the seemingly obligatory love tension between Farrell and Clare Yates.
Dead Man’s Prayers is dark and tense, with a clever central premise – even if you guess it early on (I had my suspicions), it won’t spoil the action, as Farrell and Mhairi realise they’re in a frantic race against time to save lives.
Reviewed 24 December 2016 by Sharon Wheeler
