Man at the Window ( Detective Cardilini #1) by Robert Jeffreys
Genre: Crime fiction, police procedural
Read: 29th December 2019
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 14th November 2019)
★★ 2 stars
I must be in the minority that found MAN AT THE WINDOW by Robery Jeffreys to be slow and drawn out. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the first half of the book but it just seemed to lose tangent and just be odiously long and drawn out. Which was a shame, because I was thoroughly enjoying the mystery before it went all nonsensical that by the end I was left wondering who actually pulled the trigger. To me, that is a loose end...and I hate loose ends.
Perth, Western Australia, 1965: The opening prologue sees a master of all-boys school St Nicholas, perusing over what he obviously see as his dominion. Before he knows what hits him, he is hot with half his brain over the wall behind him and he falls to the floor. Then enters an anonymous young boy of indeterminate age, who I took to be around 12 or 13, knock hesitantly on the master's door. The master, Captain Edmunds, does not answer and upon hearing no response the boy quietly moves into the dark room, inadvertently stepping on a bullet. He picks up the bullet and silently places it in his pocket before leaving the room, leaving bloodied footsteps in his wake.
Enter Detective Sergeant Cardilini. Before his wife Betty died a year ago, Cardilini was a good detective. But now, he is a lazy drunken slob that even his 18 year old son is disgusted by him. So when his boss sends him off to write up a report of accidental shooting, it was meant to be a mere formality. But from the moment he stepped into St Nicholas' College things just didn't sit right with Cardilini. And for once, against all expectations, he actually makes an effort.
What begins as an apparent accidental shooting, with a rather implausible theory in my opinion, turns into a complex case that continues to darken as the story deepens. And admittedly, I was bored and frustrated with yet another drunk cop with a chip on his shoulder - how many times have I read something like this? However, the case is an interesting one and the investigation is both raw and invasive, and under Cardilini's eye, relentless. But...he was not meant to investigate it, but to simply write up a report and file it. Against his Superintendent's wishes he continues to probe, uncovering secrets that the prestigious school would have preferred remain buried. And then it becomes clear - his super and the deputy commissioner are old boys of the school. The brass have spoken and Cardilini is hauled over the coals on more than one occasion for stepping out of line.
So herein lies his dilemma - do his job to the letter of the law who has sworn to uphold in pursuing a murderer and possibily losing his job, or allow the old boys' network to hold his balls in a vice and keep his job and his son's prospects of joining the academy.
Despite this, Cardilini is determined to get to the bottom of the matter for the sake of the boys who have been abused...though now no one is coming forward admitting to that fact. And Cardilini looks like a prize idiot.
Added to this, Cardilini then finds out that the constable that was assigned to "work the case" alongside him, Salt, is a former St Nicholas boy himself! It seems the long arm of the old boys' network reaches far and wide. But Cardilini refuses to be swayed. And this puts his job in jeopardy.
But Cardilini eventually works out what is essentially a plausible theory of the shooting...despite the fact allegations of indecent behaviour have been made against him regarding a student of St Nicholas'...but what to do about it? How to prove it? And yet the only way to refute the allegations against him is to drop the investigation and agree on the accidental shooting theory.
And yet he has a theory of who was responsible when he receives a confession from another...
A complex case that showed immense promise in the beginning, MAN AT THE WINDOW sadly ended up a confused and tangled web by its conclusion. I re-read the last part of the final chapter several times wondering what was really written between the lines and who really killed Captain Edmunds.
On the plus side, MAN AT THE WINDOW was cleverly written in its portrayal of the era - when ballistics was pretty basic and DNA, CCTV, GPS and mobile phones are all to come decades later. How notes are written in a notebook and hours can be spent retrieving records from filing cabinets or archives. The use of phone boxes and calls being made from one's desk rather than in the car or at the scene. I remember thinking why Cardilini didn't use his mobile phone before realising it was 1965 and there were no mobile phones. And then there was the social attitudes. A child's word against that of an adult - especially against one who has status and authority - is rarely believed. People turned their backs. These things never happened...until it happened to your child.
Cardilini is quite often abrasive and almost always opens his mouth just to change feet. The way he spoke and interacted with his superiors had me wondering why he hadn't been fired long ago. But his super was an old friend, they went through the academy together, and everyone it seems was giving him some extra leeway after the death of his beloved wife.
MAN AT THE WINDOW is a good debut, despite its long-winded off tangent complexities that left me scratching my head by its end. I enjoyed the first half but struggled with the second. I won't dismiss this series or the author on the basis of one book and look forward to the next one to see where that takes us. But please, no more drunk cop!
I would like to thank #RobertJeffreys, #NetGalley and #EchoPublishing for an ARC of #ManAtTheWindow in exchange for an honest review.
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