His portrayal of police procedures and relationships is particularly admirable. Before he turned to novel-writing, Hawkins was a senior lecturer in criminal law at a British police college and subsequently Director of Education for the Canadian Institute Environmental Investigations. But at the heart of his talent, Hawkins has a good feel for the desires and motivations of all his characters, including the most minor ones.

The main figure, Detective Inspector David Bliss, has been transferred from London to Hampshire, seemingly as a demotion. Bliss is very convincingly drawn and his past strongly determines his behaviour, decisions, and the shape of the book as a whole. The sub-plot of his past life and his new associates’ curiosity about him is compelling. Bliss’s recollections easily integrate into the “present-day” narrative. His obsession over a murder in the past he could not have prevented is a little overdone, however his efforts to elude the vengeful ex-convict he believes is stalking him, are gripping.

Some descriptive passages are a little too baroque for Bliss to have narrated; a character who defines himself to us early on by his less-than-upper-class education at West Wandsworth Comprehensive School. This is however, a minor distraction. The main flaw in this book is a regrettably large number of errors in punctuation and some sloppy editing. I’m sure the publisher will be able to fix these for the second edition. In all, a very strong debut novel by James Hawkins.