‘Ghost and Ragman Roll’ by Pete Adams

Ghost and Ragman Roll

The fourth book in the Kind Hearts and Martinets series finds DCI Jack Austin on honeymoon with Detective Superintendent Amanda Bruce. However, with a missing gangster back in Blighty and a murder in Paris, Jack sets out to help the local plods (and a rival detective) join up the criminal dots.

I hadn’t read the other books in the series and, while the characters’ previous antics weren’t difficult to keep up with, it would have been sensible to start at the beginning. Pete Adams writes in a style not often seen these days – he seems to have created his characters from a very English set of moulds, blending a nicely-judged sideline in slang with classic slapstick craziness, reminiscent of Norman Wisdom and John Cleese. Though I sometimes had to re-read sections to understand exactly what was going on, I have to admit I did laugh a lot (sometimes even out loud!)

If you like your cop capers a bit on the mad side, this series should satisfy very nicely, thankyou.