Sleeping Dogs is the fourth outing for DS Adam Tyler and life just keeps getting harder for the South Yorkshire detective sergeant. One way or another he’s been in trouble ever since he first appeared in Firewatching in 2020. Between his bosses and the criminals it’s been a rough ride for the unorthodox officer. This time Tyler’s life is in peril from the beginning, investigating a crime scene he is the victim of a terrible accident – or was it an accident?
Six months prior to this a white envelop suddenly appeared on Tyler’s desk at the Cold Cases Review Unit. Catnip for the detective but there’s nothing to identify the sender, just an anonymous but vague tipoff about a disappearance nearly 25 years ago. Unofficially Tyler begins looking into it and soon realises it’s the missing wife of a politician who is now in the House of Lords. Alison Beech was always assumed to have been kidnapped and murdered but her body was never found. Tyler has a suspect but he’s just died and the man’s daughter, Ruth, denies any knowledge of her father’s involvement.
To complicate things Lord Beech isn’t anxious for the case to be reopened. He makes the mistake in threatening Tyler with his bosses which only makes him more determined to dig into the past. In the present, without really keeping his colleagues in the loop, Tyler winds up following a lead to an abandoned picture house in a run down part of Sheffield. As he’s exploring the decrepit and dangerously derelict building he falls and is now fighting for his life. Was there somebody else there? Was this more than an accident?
Tyler’s colleagues want to know what happened but they have no clue what he was up to. Assistant Chief Constable Franklin appears to want this put to bed as quickly and quietly as possible. No one wants professional standards asking questions so if this was just an accident it’d be easier all the round.
With Tyler absent, his deputy DC Mina Rabboni takes charge of the cold cases unit but she has no intention of staying away from DI Doggett’s investigation into what happened to Tyler – even when she is warned off by Franklin. The office politics are an intriguing element of the story and we find Doggett is more complex than we first give him credit for.
While Tyler is in a coma Mina bumps into Ruth. It’s no accident but what does Ruth want and what does this have to do with Tyler and the long missing woman? That’s where things get really interesting. This is a tale that keeps you guessing. The scenario doesn’t initially appear very original but the characters and the way it plays out are constantly surprising. This is one of the best bits of the novel. There are elements of the case that come close to home for Mina and Tyler and that could smack of too much coincidence for some but adds to the drama, it’s personal even when the characters realise it yet.
Fans of the series might worry that Tyler is not front and centre, as usual, though he does appear before his injury. This keeps the series fresh and Mina has to step up, taking centre stage and without Tyler the pressure is on her to take the flak.
There are a plethora of police procedurals – so what makes one stand out? For me it’s the plot that constantly keeps you guessing and this does that. It makes you work for answers. How Ruth fits into the story is clever and provocative. Tension is high from the first chapter, the scene at the picture house grabs your attention, it’s so well rendered and then the chill doesn’t let up.
Sleeping Dogs is set in Sheffield, and we have plenty more Yorkshire crime fiction here.
Simon & Schuster
Print/Kindle/iBook
£8.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
