| Publisher | Gollancz |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 22 July 2021 |
| ISBN-10 | 1473230748 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1473230743 |
| Format | hardcover |
| Pages | 368 |
| Price | £ 16.99 |
The Dying Squad
by
The last thing DI Joe Lazarus expects to find when he breaks into a deserted farmhouse used a safe house by a county lines drug gang is his own dead body. Being told to solve his own murder isn’t how he expects to spend his time in the afterlife, either, but it’s better than doing nothing.
Review
Lincolnshire copper DI Joe Lazarus doesn’t enjoy standing around in ditches staking out desolate farmhouses at the best of times, and the middle of winter with mist swirling around the low-lying fenlands certainly doesn’t come into that category. He’s hoping to bust open a drugs gang, one of the so-called county lines operations, so he’s not a happy bunny when a pink-haired girl who introduces herself as Daisy-May Braithwaite turns up and declares she’s there to help him.
The discovery of two murdered drugs dealers in the hall of the isolated safe house isn’t what Joe expects to find, but that’s the least of his problems. He also doesn’t expect to find himself staring down at what appears to be his own dead body with a large gunshot wound in his guts. Joe doesn’t know how the gang have pulled this off but it’s disconcerting, to put it mildly.
Joe’s relieved when back-up finally arrives in the form of a much overdue armed response unit, but when they can’t see or hear him, the penny finally drops with a very heavy thud.
For Joe Lazarus, being dead isn’t all its cracked up to be. There are no clouds and harps and definitely no welcoming party of angels, but to look on the bright side, there are no devils with pitchforks either. Instead, his punk – equally dead – guide takes him to a dismal place that gives Purgatory a bad name. The Pen contains what Daisy-May calls the Dispossessed; dismal souls living a miserable non-life with no organisation, not even a language to unite them, although Daisy-May seems to have a connection of some sort to them.
Being dead doesn’t mean that Joe can escape work, either. He’s a reluctant conscript to what Daisy-May calls the Dying Squad, able to move between the world of the living and the not-so-alive, and his first job is, (un)naturally enough to solve his own murder.
The Dying Squad is an excellent addition to the growing cadre of supernatural detectives, with Ben Aaronovotch’s Rivers of London series leading the pack. Simcox’s world is darker with more of a bog-standard police procedural feel about it, just with the added dimension of a reluctantly dead DI. I was also reminded of my childhood favourite Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) – the original with Kenneth Cope, not the ghastly re-make – but without the white suits and walking through walls. I’m not too keen on Joe Lazarus’’s very unsubtle surname, but no crime book seems complete these days without a quirkily named protagonist and with the big clue in the name it didn’t prove hard to be several steps ahead of our hero at the beginning.
Urban fantasy has long been a favourite of mine, and I liked Joe’s brand of world-weary cynicism. He’s a copper whose been around the block enough times not to be surprised by very much, but in this case, he’s well out of his depth when it turns out that being dead is definitely not the biggest shock he’s going to get. I also liked the perky, confident Daisy-May, who’s tied to Joe’s investigation in ways that even she doesn’t expect. There are plenty of surprises in this darkly entertaining police procedural with a difference and I’ll certainly be happy to see Joe and Daisy-May team up for another bout of otherworldly crime-busting.
The discovery of two murdered drugs dealers in the hall of the isolated safe house isn’t what Joe expects to find, but that’s the least of his problems. He also doesn’t expect to find himself staring down at what appears to be his own dead body with a large gunshot wound in his guts. Joe doesn’t know how the gang have pulled this off but it’s disconcerting, to put it mildly.
Joe’s relieved when back-up finally arrives in the form of a much overdue armed response unit, but when they can’t see or hear him, the penny finally drops with a very heavy thud.
For Joe Lazarus, being dead isn’t all its cracked up to be. There are no clouds and harps and definitely no welcoming party of angels, but to look on the bright side, there are no devils with pitchforks either. Instead, his punk – equally dead – guide takes him to a dismal place that gives Purgatory a bad name. The Pen contains what Daisy-May calls the Dispossessed; dismal souls living a miserable non-life with no organisation, not even a language to unite them, although Daisy-May seems to have a connection of some sort to them.
Being dead doesn’t mean that Joe can escape work, either. He’s a reluctant conscript to what Daisy-May calls the Dying Squad, able to move between the world of the living and the not-so-alive, and his first job is, (un)naturally enough to solve his own murder.
The Dying Squad is an excellent addition to the growing cadre of supernatural detectives, with Ben Aaronovotch’s Rivers of London series leading the pack. Simcox’s world is darker with more of a bog-standard police procedural feel about it, just with the added dimension of a reluctantly dead DI. I was also reminded of my childhood favourite Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) – the original with Kenneth Cope, not the ghastly re-make – but without the white suits and walking through walls. I’m not too keen on Joe Lazarus’’s very unsubtle surname, but no crime book seems complete these days without a quirkily named protagonist and with the big clue in the name it didn’t prove hard to be several steps ahead of our hero at the beginning.
Urban fantasy has long been a favourite of mine, and I liked Joe’s brand of world-weary cynicism. He’s a copper whose been around the block enough times not to be surprised by very much, but in this case, he’s well out of his depth when it turns out that being dead is definitely not the biggest shock he’s going to get. I also liked the perky, confident Daisy-May, who’s tied to Joe’s investigation in ways that even she doesn’t expect. There are plenty of surprises in this darkly entertaining police procedural with a difference and I’ll certainly be happy to see Joe and Daisy-May team up for another bout of otherworldly crime-busting.
Reviewed 19 February 2022 by Linda Wilson
