Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
I was surprised how much I liked the main characters and 48 hrs after finishing the book, I still have them in my head - Ryan’s behaviour is OTT, can he see a psychiatrist please for a diagnosis and treatment! I don't read many crime novels, but I was in Oxford and it was November, so I thought it would be the best moment to read it. This is a very good mystery story with interesting characters, but the blatant caricature of the members of an Oxford college faculty detracts from this reader's enjoyment. A decent crime thriller but a little too stereotyped in its character portrayals to be an instant classic.
An interesting central character: troubled policeman, operating outside the rules, so far so conventional, but Ryan Wilkins is engagingly different. Both with some heavy emotional baggage that try to manage in their own way - predictably, Ryan with outbursts of anger and Ray with long hours at work. Honestly if you loved inspector Morse books, a flawed and poor and tough genius police officer this book is one for you, it’s almost like Morse has reversed into a young tough chap, with a past that is brutal and trying to make sure his kid lives the best life he can. And for good measure, I thought I’d give Ryan an unlikely partner, the suave and sophisticated Ray, London-Nigerian graduate of Balliol College and boxing blue of the university.This is light reading which entertains and also touches, like most good detective stories, on real issues of some import (from class to race, to illegal immigration and sexual abuse).
Because of this complexity, and the fun I had reading about the interactions between Ryan and Ray, I am giving A KILLING IN NOVEMBER four stars. An unusual crime thriller set in Oxford featuring two policemen, both with the surname Wilkins, Ryan and Ray.I wondered what sort of crime novel would suit these circumstances, and that’s when Ryan came into my mind. A stunning Oxford-set whodunit featuring two finely drawn detectives, A Killing in November focuses on a University college murder and the visit of a Middle-Eastern sheik notorious for human rights abuses. I agree with other reviewers that maybe little Ryan is a bit advanced for his age though I have met one very articulate two and a half year old. These two could not be more different and this is what makes “A Killing in November” such a great read.
He dropped out of school at the earliest opportunity and ran wild with his girlfriend, who died young of an overdose, leaving Ryan with a child, Ryan Junior. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. I also agree that Ryan the elder is slightly over the top - it really is hard to see why he was allowed to stay in the police for five minutes, never mind becoming a DI - on the other hand it makes for an entertaining read.It is not entirely filled in how Ryan became a DI with his amazingly bad attitude and refusal to adapt his clothing or manner or anything else, though he's a kind of crime solving savant. Set in Oxford, A Killing in November by Simon Mason is the first of a new English police procedural series. A lot of the humour comes from their contrasting class and backgrounds - white 'trailer trash' versus black Oxford-educated - but it works and the dialogue is wholly convincing (would make great TV screenplay). it was enhanced by deft prose and the detective duo of social misfit Ryan Wilkins and the Balliol-educated Ray Wilkins. I must admit at the beginning I found Ryan a character that stretched credulity as he dressed in trackies and a baseball cap worn backwards, arriving from Wiltshire under a dark cloud, rude and aggressive in his questioning of suspects and witnesses, with strong anger management issues, but he grew on me, and I found I was more than willing to suspend my sense of disbelief.
Great Deal 
New Comment