Over many, many decades, fictional detectives have relied on their brains – the ‘little grey cells’ as one of the clan’s most famed members, Hercule Poirot, would put it – to tackle the most complicated of cases.
But what if that mind isn’t firing on all cylinders? Crime fiction fans were first introduced to DCI Jack Parker last year in The Silent Killer. Now the copper based in the North East of England is back in The Inside Man, where he is fighting battles both professional and personal.
As revealed in the first book, Jack has early onset dementia, something he’s desperately trying to keep a secret from his colleagues and family. He is living alone, eating healthily, eschewing the booze, exercising and religiously trying to complete a daily cryptic crossword – all of which is ringing alarm bells with the people he knows and loves.
Jack has separated from his wife Helen and son Aidan. He’s afraid that the violent streak which was revealed in his father in the latter days of his battle with dementia might be in his DNA – and of what he might do while in the darkest throes of the condition. As book two opens, Jack is about to take part in a drugs trial that may or may not slow down dementia’s insidious progress. It’s got to be worth a try, right?
He’s trying to keep wife Helen at arms length but after she manages to wheedle the truth from her husband she mounts a campaign to get him back home again. However, Jack has conditions and with assisted dying making the real-life headlines these days, those conditions are prescient and painful.
Jack’s soul-searching about his predicament percolates through everything that happens in The Inside Man. It’s always there in the background, but Trevor Wood still manages to put together a novel that has crime front and centre. A young woman and her son have gone missing and Jack’s boss is convinced that her ex-husband is the guilty party even though other credible suspects are on the team’s radar. Jack being Jack, he isn’t going to take that lying down and still has the death of his former partner to solve, too.
Jack Parker is an intuitive copper who isn’t averse to taking risks, although whether this is influenced by his dementia or he’s always been that way is open to debate. He’s fortunate to have a solid and loyal team on his side, in the shape of DS Leon Johnson and relative newbie DS Emma Steel, who are the voice of reason when Jack pushes things too far. But that doesn’t stop Emma from willingly stepping into the breach when Jack suggests she gets close to a dangerous local gangster, although Leon doesn’t seem too keen.
The action ebbs and flows in this book and the changes of pace work well in a story with myriad layers. Sometimes, reading this one can feel a bit like juggling, because Wood enjoys throwing several balls in the air at once – and that in turn puts you on your toes as the pages keep on turning.
At the centre of it all, like a grumpy garden gnome, is Jack Parker, whose predicament is getting trickier as each day passes. Just how long can he keep his condition from the powers that be?
The crime element is strong here, but it is the personal side of this story that feels totally real. It’s heartbreaking and thought-provoking, and so realistically done that you’ll find yourself puzzling over those crossword clues with Jack and beginning to wonder how your own brain is doing.
Also see Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing.
Quercus Books
Print/Kindle/iBook
£9.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
