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

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The Oxford college setting is perfect for Ryan's first outing, emphasising his otherness and setting him up in belligerent opposition to the forces of tradition and establishment. 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. This is light reading which entertains and also touches, like most good detective stories, on real issues of some import (from class to race, to illegal immigration and sexual abuse).

This is an entertaining and engaging crime read, with many threads, like asylum seekers, human trafficking, sexual harrassment, and abuse, a novel that I have no doubt will appeal to many crime and mystery readers.On the face of it, it sounds like a collection of clichés of the genre strung together: the chalk-and-cheese partners, the rebellious working-class detective in a posh environment and so on.

As you might imagine, Ray and Ryan have little in common, chalk and cheese, and initially struggle to get on, but slowly they begin to form a bond, Ryan might well be a wild card, but he notices details and is able to make breaks in a complex and intriguing case, where it takes some time to identify the murdered woman, and which involves a valuable stolen Koran, and another death. Ryan has a genuinely warm and moving relationship with his young son and a tendency to think creatively, which is let down by his inability to control his mouth or his anger.But there are shadows of Morse in Ryan's fierce cleverness, his forensic mind and his relentless pursuit of the truth whatever the personal and professional cost. The two central characters are perhaps a little overdone, but they are interesting studies nonetheless, both flawed in their own way and with plenty of messy stuff left unresolved, rather than the trite little Life Lessons which so often pollute this kind of portrayal. 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. Ray is closer to Morse, with his Balliol education and his classical music, while Ryan is more like the working class Lewis, albeit that he has none of Lewis's patience or measured approach to life and work. Add to this the idea that Ryan, a CID Inspector, would turn up to investigate a death in an Oxford college wearing tracksuit bottoms and a baseball cap on backward, tell the Provost to “calm the [copulatory obscenity] down” and so on and it sounds utterly preposterous.

I admire the fact the author did not finish this book with an obvious sequel, but I really hope he has one in mind.A fast paced, enjoyable thriller that challenges our assumptions about class, race, goodness, corruption and depravity.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Set in Oxford, A Killing in November by Simon Mason is the first of a new English police procedural series. 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. The two sides of Oxford are well portrayed, there is some pretty good characterisation and Ryan’s relationship with his 2-year-old son is especially well painted, I think. I was done as I really couldn’t take to him but something made me just carry On a little longer and In doing so I’m very glad I did as I’ve read one of my favourite books this year and Ryan became a character I loved.I wondered what sort of crime novel would suit these circumstances, and that’s when Ryan came into my mind. Being born in a trailer park he is immediately up against the privilege and “rich” Oxford he has battled against all his life. It is not entirely filled in how Ryan became a DI with his amazingly bad attitude and refusal to adapt his clothing or manner or anything else, though he's a kind of crime solving savant. 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.