This is the 18th installment of books by Rhys Dylan, and as far as I am
concerned, it is his best so far. I wouldn't say that his previous books
were perfunctory but they don't achieve the richness of this one. In the
17th book, I guessed the identity of the murderer fairly early on: not
because of what was written in the book but because I have assimilated the
style of the author and know what to look for. On the other hand, I didn't
expect the direction that the novel took in the final chapters. In this
respect, there is a similarity to the late, great, Peter Robinson (DCI
Banks) whose books started slowly and gradually built up pace towards the
end.
This book, however, is not in the same mould as the other books. At first,
it wasn't even clear what the book was about and who the murdered person
was. Before I get further into a discussion of the book, I will note that
like J. K. Rowling, every scene, almost every word, is important. If we are
shown something, then that something will later appear (aka Chekov's gun).
So the opening chapters, apparently unconnected, are not simply there for
colour. On the other hand, the hospitalisation of Evan Warlow with a bad
case of pneumonia (which I diagnosed before the book) doesn't seem to
contribute too much although it does allow the other characters to
shine.
Talking of which, in 'the future', DCI Warlow and his second in command, DI Jess Allanby (a couple, from about book 10) are supposed to take a joint holiday
in Australia, probably by the time of the next book, so I was wondering who
would take charge of their unit. By chance, one of the sub-plots -
and indeed, the only murders - takes place near Weston Super Mare (near
Bristol) and one of those murdered has connections to Wales. So the
investigating DI comes to Wales to see what's happening, and as she is Welsh
also, I suspect that she will take control of the next book. I have just
discovered that the author wrote a trilogy about this character several
years ago, the events of which are partially recalled here by some of the
characters.
Back to 'Druid's Moor': this book neatly ties together threads from several
books in a way that none of the cast nor the reader could have expected.
Even though I started and finished reading the book in a few hours
yesterday, this is the first in this series that I want to read all the way
through again. Due to the resolution of this book, however, it would not be
the best place to start reading the series; it is not self-supporting.
There's a nice self-refential joke in chapter 3: Talking of cures and doctors, did I tell you I bumped into an old friend of
mine… a doctor who retired and turned crime writer? His books aren’t half bad,
actually. Though they could do with a bit more sex.’ "Rhys Dylan" is actually a pseudonym for Dylan Jones, a retired NHS
ophthalmologist.
I forgot to add that there are some nice musical touches from one of the characters with early 70s Genesis, Alan Parsons, Yes and Led Zeppelin amongst others being mentioned. Jess only knows the references from Evan.
Homonym mistakes that hint that maybe the book was dictated and not written:
- "You're like my mate Ed's K9, Moley, when you get your teeth into something" (Chapter 3)
- There's a place where a "they're" is written as "their" (I can't find this - maybe it's in the previous book)
- In probably the first book, Crewe is written as Crew.
This day in blog history:
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 257 | LASIK surgery | Health | |
| 606 | New mobile computer | Computers | |
| 868 | Vinyl log 16 - 24 June | Van der Graaf Generator, Vinyl log, City Boy | |
| 1635 | Lessons in Chemistry | Literature |
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