Meet DI Jake Sawyer. He’s a tad different from your average British copper and as we first meet him he’s enduring a crowded train journey from London to Sheffield.
As they speed through the flatlands of Bedfordshire, passengers are studiously ignoring a bit of a domestic brewing in the carriage. Not Sawyer, though. He may have his back to the man loudly berating his girlfriend, but he’s taking it all in – and soon has something pithy to say about the situation. Although things are eventually resolved without fisticuffs, it’s a clear sign that Jake is someone who is not afraid to stick his two-penn’orth in.
Jake Sawyer is something of a loner, back on home turf in the Peak District after two years with the Met in London. He isn’t due to join his new team in Buxton for weeks yet, but when a killer who buries their victims alive and watches them die via a camera in the lid of the cardboard coffin makes their presence felt, Sawyer is understandably keen to be on the case.
A local lad, Sawyer has worked this patch before, and it becomes clear that not everyone is happy to see him upon his return. At first he’s pointedly kept out of the investigation, until a second death ramps up the pressure on the team and the prodigal son is reluctantly allowed back into the fold. Thank heavens some of the old gang have his back, including Maggie, a family liaison officer and private therapist who is also an old flame – though that complicates things somewhat.
You’d think that perhaps Sawyer might have learned his lesson, meekly join the team and resolve to take things more carefully this time, but no such luck. Instead, his unconventional side soon comes to the fore. This man is afraid of nothing, and no one and how he handles the situations he encounters is certainly unexpected. He is also driven and haunted by memories of his past. It’s why he’s returned to the place where he grew up, and where, as a child, he and his brother witnessed their mother’s murder.
What could so easily be written off as just another police procedural is lifted above the norm by Andrew Lowe’s skill at creating quirky but hugely relatable characters, and putting them in a glorious setting. The fact that he is an absolute whizz at plotting helps too – because Creepy Crawly never takes the well-worn path, instead veering off in all manner of unexpected directions, and keeping the reader on their toes in the process.
The area where Sawyer is based may be a tourist magnet, but it has its own problems and issues and Lowe is not shy in exploring them; this author delights in digging into the darkness that’s hiding in plain sight in some delightful locations.
Fans of character-driven crime will enjoy Lowe’s balanced approach to the narrative, and the pages fly by as little by little, we begin to learn more about the detective… and the killer – because Creepy Crawly is a novel that centres on Jake Sawyer, but gives the villain a fair crack of the whip too.
The former journalist also has an entertaining writing style and his clever turns of phrase had me going back and re-reading passages, just for the sheer pleasure of it. There is so much to like here. eBook lovers have already taken Andrew Lowe and Jake Sawyer to their hearts, but readers of old school print are just starting on their journey, with the entire series now out. That’s the summer reading sorted, then!
See our interview with Andrew Lowe here.
Vinci Books
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.19
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
