To The Last Page

It’s a rare enough characteristic for a crime fiction police detective to be earnest and methodical rather than a world-weary wildcard maverick, but there are a few antecedents for the DS George Cross in the first book of Tim Sullivan’s new detective series, The Dentist . There’s a little bit of David Mark’s DS McAvoy in Cross’s diligence, his not fitting in with colleagues, working by the book with determination to see justice done and not being swayed by office politics or the convenient shortcuts taken by other officers in the Somerset and Avon Police Force in Bristol. There’s also evidently a bit of Saga Norén from the Swedish TV series The Bridge in Cross’s Asperger’s, with his lack of social skills, but an ability to see things differently, look past distractions and focus on details and look for patterns. More than anything though it’s perhaps the similar purposeful and determined way that the author draws you into his world that makes this opening Cross investigation so compel...