- Culture
- 15 Jun 16
A fine piece of contemporary crime writing, Those We Left Behind established DCI Serena Flanagan as a formidable heroine. The follow-up So Say The Fallen should convince any remaining doubting Thomases.
There’s more to this book than your average crime romp. Detective Flanagan has seen her husband brutally thrashed as a result of her investigations and the related pressures on her family life are plain to see. There’s a beating heart in Neville’s writing, which never strays into the dodgy ground of bleeding heart. Instead, it provides an assuringly human touch, to raise the emotional stakes.
The style is comparatively straightforward, and the dialogue particularly so – the effect is that the story rolls along. So Say The Fallen is another step towards creating one of the most compelling and satisfying sagas in the genre for some time. Now for the TV adaptation...