The Blitz Detective (The Blitz Detective #1) by Mike Hollow
Genre: Crime fiction, WW2, Historical fiction
Read: 23rd August 2021
Published: 23rd July 2020
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
First published as Direct Hit
Saturday 7th September, 1940. The sun is shining, and in the midst of the good weather Londoners could be mistaken for forgetting their country was at war – until the familiar wail of the air-raid sirens heralds an enemy attack. The Blitz has started, and normal life has abruptly ended – but crime has not.
That night a man’s body is discovered in an unmarked van in the back streets of West Ham. When Detective Inspector John Jago is called to the scene, he recognises the victim: local Justice of the Peace, Charles Villiers. The death looks suspicious, but then a German bomb obliterates all evidence. War or no war, murder is still murder, and it’s Jago’s job to find the truth.
MY REVIEW:
I admit that this book first attracted me to not only taking place during the Blitz but it's setting - West Ham and the East End of London, from which my dad hails. I recognise the place names from where he was born and where he lived and grew up - Plaistow, Stratford, West Ham and Upton Park. The fact it takes place during the Blitz also drew me as my dad was 2 to 3 years old during that time and it would have been frightening for a child. But then this book also offers something different...a murder mystery amidst the bombs falling.
But...war or no war, murder is still murder.
Saturday 7th September 1940 and veteran copper DI John Jago has spent twenty years policing the East End of London and his home town of West Ham. Also a veteran of WW1, Jago has seen a lot of death and when war was declared this time round he was glad that his services were no longer required in the Army as he saw enough then to last him a lifetime. But no sooner had war declared than his trusty DS was called back into action from the reserves and Jago now has to puppy walk his replacement DC Peter Cradock, beginning with the all important lesson in football appreciation to watch his beloved West Ham play Tottenham. Three goals down to the visiting team and the air raid siren sounds and play is halted and people scurry to find shelter while Jago and Cradock make their way back to the station.
Lesson number two comes when a call comes in about a body discovered in a deserted van on an East End street. Jago and Cradock head to the scene and are immediately puzzled by the dead man's injuries. He has slashes to his wrists and a stab wound to the chest. Were these wounds self inflicted or a result of something more sinister? Did he attempt suicide or was he murdered? It's puzzling because one could inflict the wrist wounds, but why stab oneself in the chest? And if someone were attempting to make it look like suicide why also stab him in the chest?
Either way, Jago suspects it is more likely the killer was hoping to pass off the murder as a suicide and maybe panicked. He is also surprised to recognise the victim as Charles Villiers, a local Justice of the Peace and magistrate. But before they could call in a pathologist and photographer to process the scene, the raid draws nearer as Jago and Cradock race to take cover nearby. As they emerge from the cloud of dust all that remains of their crime scene is a giant bomb crater obliterating both the body and the van completely and with it all evidence.
Nevertheless as he begins his investigations, Jago soon discovers Villiers is not as squeaky clean as his magistrate persona might portray. As a local businessman he appeared to have gained numerous enemies and his marriage was not all it seemed to be either. His widow was far from grieving and neither was his son. But the deeper Jago and Cradock dig, the more they discover about Villiers' printing business and his dodgy operation profiteering from the war effort.
And then a second body turns up just as Jago and Cradock almost become victims of a fire. The second victim had close ties to Villiers and was possibly one of the last people to see him alive the night he was killed.
Added to the investigation at hand, Jago is also given the additional task of accompanying American journalist Dorothy Appleton around the East End and keeping her in tow. At first, Jago appears to slightly resent her presence and argues about whether the stories the news prints are truth, an exaggerated version of or even a played down version of the truth. It is clear he doesn't trust the papers or what they print and his mistrust is evident from the start. However, as he spends more time with the journalist he realises he may have been too quick to judge.
And then he discovers a ghost from his past taking him back to the Western Front in 1917...
The first in the series of the same name, THE BLITZ DETECTIVE is a delightfully straightforward crime novel involving murder and the nefarious dodgy dealings of war profiteering set against a very real and distinctly dark time in British history. Investigating a murder while German bombs are falling around you proves to be a most difficult task but Jago is competent enough to find the villain and bring him, or her, to justice. But also in the background is the shadow of the Great War in which Jago served at the Western Front himself and which still haunts him today. But the shadows of that first war not only haunts our hero but our villain as well as the motivation behind the crimes tells a somewhat sad tale. While the old school coppers may have taken the bad guys into the cells and beaten them round the head with a phone book to get answers, Jago is sympathetic and sincere even if somewhat jaded.
DC Cradock is thrust into the deep end rather quickly but he soon finds his feet and proves himself to be a competent copper, even if he is tad wet behind the ears. The more involved he becomes the more confidence he gains as Jago and previously retired desk sergeant Tompkins enlighten him to the finer points of policing through wisdom and a little humour.
An atmospheric crime novel, THE BLITZ DETECTIVE is a compelling and easy read that will appeal to fans of "Foyle's War".
*previously published as "Direct Hit".
I would like to thank #MikeHollow, #Netgalley and #AllisonAndBusby for an ARC of #TheBlitzDetective in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Mike was born in 1953 in the Essex County Borough of West Ham – home of the Blitz Detective – on the eastern edge of London. He grew up mainly in Romford and went to the Royal Liberty School, then studied Russian and French at Cambridge University.
His first job was translating for the BBC, where he did various jobs for sixteen years before moving to work in communications for development agency Tearfund, travelling widely in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In 2002 Mike went freelance as a writer, editor and creative project manager.
Now he spends all my time in the cellar of his house in Hampshire chronicling the adventures of the Blitz Detective.
Why write detective novels? Because he enjoys reading them and loves to create entertaining stories. Why the Blitz? Because overnight it turned everyday existence into a life-and-death struggle for ordinary people – and some of them were his family.
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