The List by Graham H Miller

 

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291 Pages

You can buy The List...Here

You can follow Graham H Miller...Here

• The Blurb...

Seven names on a list. No birthdates, no addresses, just seven names.

Jonah Greene has been exiled from CID into the role of coroner’s officer. His first body, a homeless man who didn’t survive a freezing night, has left him with a list of seven names to decode.

Jonah’s determination to investigate sees him going up against his boss and a system that wants the whole matter forgotten. But he sees this as his one chance at redemption, and refuses to give up as the stakes increase, until his life is threatened.

Buy The List today and begin to unravel the mystery in the first Jonah Greene novel.

• My Review...

Jonah Greene was a Detective Constable but he's lost his bottle, his nerve has gone. When he comes back to work after therapy nobody wants to work with him, so he gets "promoted" to Coroner's Officer with little chance of face to face action with crims and no-one to let down because he is working on his own. Until a homeless body is found, Patrick froze to death. Soon a friend of Patrick tells Jonah that Patrick knew he was going to be killed and in that event he was to hand the police a list of names and so begins a twisty conundrum of a plot. 

Jonah begins to investigate but there are some rich and powerful political people involved who have influence over the police. The Police refuse to investigate (bang on trend there! shades of Boris and the Met) There is also a whiff of "Crime & Punishment" in the "We are the elite, the law is meant for you not us, we are exempt" attitude in the antagonists. Again this is right on the zeitgeist. (There again thinking about it, sadly, it's probably always been on the zeitgeist and always will be.) Nonetheless, Jonah ploughs on with a sense of obligation to the homeless man and a chance of redemption for himself, but the further he digs the more the pressure mounts.

It was good to see an up to date, crime thriller set in Cardiff. Lets hope Jonah becomes to Cardiff, what Rebus is to Edinburgh.

I found myself really identifying with Jonah. Older, Welsh, ex rugby player, stuck in his ways, married to the love of his life, with two grown up kids. Slightly gone to seed and gradually putting on a bit of timber. Unlike me, he is a meticulous and relentless man who cannot leave a stone unturned. I Could quite easily see Richard Harrington of Hinterland or maybe Mark Lewis Jones of Keeping Faith as Jonah.

As well as liking the protagonist, I thought the plot was well contrived and the gradual reveal of the timeline back over 20+ years was really well done. We  begin at the end, and Jonah eventually works his way back to the beginning at which point the plot all makes sense. It's sort of like looking the wrong way down a telescope, working out how to use it properly, then looking down it the right way then thinking Ah! now I can see how it works. 

Loved the protagonist, loved the plot. It's a Yes from me! The second Jonah Greene book "Buzzard House" is going on the TBR

• Selected Quotes...

"Just because someone wears a suit doesn't mean they're not a criminal. In fact they're more likely to be."

"A full church diluted the grief somehow, made it less obvious."

"Prof had come and gone like shade. All he'd left behind was a used coffee cup, a faint musty smell and a list of names. He hadn't even left his name."

"It's like if I wake up and grab two black socks, one from Marks and Spencer and one from Asda. I know they'll look the same if I wear them but I just cant do it. He looked up to a blank look from Alex. Or like having the knife, fork and spoon all matching and lined up the right way round. Or the loo roll hanging the right way round."

• If You Liked This, Then You May Like These...

The Nesting Place by Jacqueline Harret (Click link for our review)

Crimson Snow by Jason R Vowles (Click link for our review)

Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin

• About the Author

Graham H Miller has been writing since his teenage years when he had a scenario printed in a role playing magazine. Since then he’s written articles, guest posts and a book on pagan subjects. His brain is always at work, with more ideas than time. He is a house-husband proudly perpetuating the stereotype by writing books while his three boys are at school. He has two blogs that are erratically updated - one about life as father to three special boys and the other covering his thoughts on writing and the publishing process. His interests include prehistory, classic cars, anything Viking and learning Welsh. Fascinated by everything, he lives in South Wales and is older than he thinks he is!