Book Review of Lethal Game by Charlie Gallagher

 

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You (should) know you’re dealing with a psychopath when someone else is to blame

The above headline does not betray the plot of the second Joel Norris/ Lucy Rose novel (the author is clever), but in real life this is a good guide to dealing with psychopaths. The problem the two detectives in the novel have with their psychopathic killer is the level of sophistication with which blame is transferred -and that also translates to real life.

This is an effective page-turner of a thriller and much of the urgency comes from the poor relations the two leading characters have with colleagues: it’s a race against incompetent or uncaring intervention as much as it is a race against a clock set by the murderer. (One is reminded of the real life case of Stephen Port, now being examined in the coroner’s court, where a less dramatic but equivalent race was lost.)

What the public sees is a police service rendered helpless by its own rules, procedures and above all, assumptions. What they want are police detectives who will cut through all these to get to the truth and this is what Charlie Gallagher supplies in this novel. Doing the same thing in real life is going to be much more problematic, but if this novel succeeds to the extent that I think it will, it will be proof that the public are currently very frustrated with the police. “Dixon of Dock Green” spoke to a public who could trust the police and not be let down all that often. The Joel Norris and Lucy Rose series speaks to a public who expect senior officers to queer the pitch for any officer who’s actually trying to do the right thing against the odds. Full marks to the author for tapping into this, but the fact that the public is receptive to such a narrative is a serious problem.

Lethal Game by Charlie Gallagher is published by Avon Books on the 11^th of November 2021