Thursday, November 16, 2023

"Talion" by Pete Brassett


Detective Sergeant Charlotte (“Charlie”) West and her team have a case. A body’s been found at the bottom of a cliff, with no identification. But West is also almost desperate to find her boss, Detective Inspector James Munro, last seen entering his home, followed by murderer, before an explosion rocked the house. 

Munro is eventually found, and the body is eventually identified as a small-time hood, so small-time that no one should want to kill him. But murdered he was, and Munro and West have some unraveling to do to find the answers they’re looking for.

 

Pete Brassett

Talion
 is the sixth Munro & West crime novel by Scottish writer Pete Brassett. And it is a crime, heavily leavened by humor. I’d noted the humor Brassett has used before, but it moves front and center in Talion, including a few laugh-out-loud scenes. Most of the humor involves the wit of Munro, but it cuts across the story and the characters. And Munro will eventually identify the killer, with the help of a young boy who loves examining dead things, and he just might commit a crime on his own if is detective superintendent doesn’t process his retirement papers as promised.

 

Brassett, a native Scot, has published 10 novels in the Munro and West series, as well as a number of general fiction and mystery titles. 

 

The suspects in Talion are as finely drawn as the police team investigating the crime. Throw in a good story seasoned with a heavy dose of humor, and it’s a winning story.

 

Related:

 

She by Pete Brassett.

 

Avarice by Pete Brassett.

 

Duplicity by Pete Brassett.

 

Terminus by Pete Brassett.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

Writing Will Be There When You Need It – Nathan Bransford.

 

Quietly – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Year of the Monarch: Harvesting and Planting Milkweed Seeds – Laura Boggess at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

A nice shout-out from a reader about Dancing Priest – Bill Grandi at Living in the Shadow.

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