A Killing in November: The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month (DI Wilkins Mysteries)

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I agree with other reviewers that maybe little Ryan is a bit advanced for his age though I have met one very articulate two and a half year old. Suffice it to say that I found the idea of the double detective excellent and entertaining, Stereotypical characters, certain lack of verisimilitude at times, but fleshed out with some individuality and a bit of complexity. However, on reflection, maybe I had slipped into judging the character negatively just like everyone else he encountered in the book.

In contrast, Ray Wilkins is the son of African immigrants, university educated with a wife and is a suave dresser.They’re highly exaggerated characters and I’d have preferred more subtlety in their dialogue and behaviour. Believable characters, and interesting plot, two detectives with interesting personal lives and some info on college life in Oxford. The plot involving an Oxford college, a wealthy Arab Sheik and the murder of an unidentified woman, rattles along at a good pace and there are plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.

While the plot itself is interesting enough - a young woman is murdered in the Provost's office while the College is entertaining an Emirati dignitary it is hoping to extract cash from - it is Ryan's relationships with the other two Wilkins that nourish and sustain this book. Discretion is a venerable Oxford tradition, so too refinement and good manners; it is rare for a college to have anything so crude as a sign with its name on outside its gates.He is one of the youngest detective inspectors on the Thames Valley Force, and passed out top of his class in his training programme. Simon Mason sets his crime novel amidst the dreaming spires of Oxford, depicting the contrasting picture of the city, the sharp divides in social class with those that inhabit the entitled, privileged, wealthy academic circles at the fictional Barnabas College, and the more socially deprived parts with riots taking place amidst the notorious council estates of Blackbird Leys. That such a character could have made it to DI is a nonsense, from which the plot never really recovers. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Two DIs share a family name, a first name initial and an office in the Oxford police force but nothing else. An unusual crime thriller set in Oxford featuring two policemen, both with the surname Wilkins, Ryan and Ray.This is such a brilliant, compelling, gripping and thrilling book, that as soon as I had it in my hands I had to read it. Their first murder investigation occurs at St Barnabas's College in the Provos’s office and the contrasting Wilkins’ style causes much grief and makes for a riveting read. Ryan grew up in a nearby trailer park where he was considered “white trash”, dresses sloppily, and is rude and aggressive to almost everyone, except for his two-year old son, whom he adores. But I did find a lot of the tropes pretty lazy (posh guy eating Waitrose meals, poor guy wearing trackies and being casually bigoted) and while I get that the novel was going for the edgy detective as its USP, I found the Ryan character to verge too far towards the offensive, implausible and unlikeable.

You can see Ryan hanging around town in his trackie bottoms and Loop jacket and plaid baseball cap, the epitome of the chav. Because of this complexity, and the fun I had reading about the interactions between Ryan and Ray, I am giving A KILLING IN NOVEMBER four stars. He is too brash, too uncontrollable for me to believe that he ever managed to graduate from police college, let alone made it to DI by age 27. This is a very good mystery story with interesting characters, but the blatant caricature of the members of an Oxford college faculty detracts from this reader's enjoyment.are superb and his relationship with Ray, a snob with a heart of gold beneath the sharp suit, shows huge potential. And too many pages at the end are taken up by a rather breathless rush through tying up the loose ends. I really enjoyed this book, the back stories, the characters and their relationships, the investigation and for once this book lived up to all the positive critiques it has received. And don’t get me started on his 2-year-old son seemingly having language skills that would put most secondary school kids to shame, a recurring feature which annoyed me more than it probably should).