alan johnson One of Our Ministers is Missing

[Mister Hobgoblin]

 

UK Government Minister, Lord Edward Bellingham, is reported missing on Crete by his wife. This unleashes a high profile, high level search to which Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Louise Mangan is sent as a liaison officer. This takes her away from her regular work in London leading the security detail for high profile overseas visitors while a hitman works though his commissions. 

 

This is a complex mystery that is well told. The setting in particular, London and Crete, feel well drawn and convincing. The reader feels the heat of the Greek sunshine and the breeze through the mountains, hears the lap of the waves contrasting with the bustle and diverse languages on the streets of Stoke Newington. As one would expect in a novel written by a former Home Secretary, there is plenty of high level politics and diplomacy, but this never detracts from the more mundane police procedural work at play. 

 

Some of the characters are well developed, but others feel rather stereotyped - the obese and alcoholic journalist Christopher Finch, Brady the Belfast-born hitman, the naive Geordie nanny, Dimitri the restaurateur. And in the audio-book version, the narrator (Richard Attlee) rather ill-advisedly chooses  affect each accent for the dialogue sections. It does help to delineate the characters but at times it feels a bit music hall. 

 

As a whodunnit, the dastardly scheme is pretty obvious quite early in the piece. This is not actually a bad thing. Often crime novels spend way too much time creating convoluted red herrings and cryptic references that it confuses the reader. This one does not confuse, instead leaving the reader to enjoy watching it all unfold. There are a couple of twist-ettes, perhaps, as the strands are brought together, but nothing that will tax the brain too much. 

 

Essentially, this is a good summer read that will entertain and, perhaps, give a glimpse into a lifestyle (peerages, chief commissioners, millionaires, Greek islands) that most of us find aspirational. Jolly good fun all round. 

 

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