I love Alison Lingwood’s style of writing. I know I’m in for a treat when I start one her books and A Wild Kind of Justice was no exception. I read a lot of crime fiction books, but most tend to be a lot more gruesome than Alison Lingwood’s much more gentle (for want of a better word) murder mysteries. I enjoy both kinds and this has been a pleasure to read.

A Wild Kind of Justice is Alison Lingwood’s third book and I would recommend you read them in order as they do feature the same detective and some of the character’s story lines follow on from the previous books. I don’t think you’d find yourself totally lost if you read this as a standalone though.

In this story DCI Christopher Timothy finds himself in charge of a new mystery when part of a human body is found at the site of a disused mine in Staffordshire. Unfortunately he doesn’t get much of a chance to investigate before losing a close friend to murder and ending up in hospital himself. His team battle to piece together the evidence and try to find any links between the two murders, but nothing much seems to make sense to start with. They miss Chris’ expertise but are determined to solve the case before anyone else gets hurt. With the help of vital witnesses things eventually start falling in to place.

This is a very cleverly written police procedural which is very much plot driven, but also focusses heavily on the character’s.

I really felt for Chris’ wife. It must be terrifying being married to a policeman, especially when your worst fears seem to be coming true. I also felt for his colleagues, desperate to uncover the truth. It just goes to show though, do you ever really know those who you should be able to trust?

I love that this book is set in Newcastle-under-Lyme (my hometown). It’s great when you can picture the places mentioned!

Full of suspense, as always. I’m looking forward to catching up with DCI Christopher Timothy, and others, in the next book.