Ragdoll by Daniel Cole

Not bad as procedural's go but rather too much about "damaged" detectives making their own rules to catch a killer for my liking - it has been done so often that it all feels a little trite and unfortunately this book gets sucked down in to that accepted trope.  Whilst the murders themselves are inventive and a little different from the usual shootings and stabbings they still feel a little mechanical somehow.  We have no basis for the crimes until very late in the book and that feels more tagged on than a pre-planned plot, I don't really understand why it feels this way as it is flagged quite early in the book when dealing with Wolf being sectioned in St. Ann's psychiatric wing with Joel.

Apart from Edmunds most of the characters are pretty unlikeable.  Baxter and Wolf in particular seem to have no redeeming characteristics and are all about "the job" and battling their personal demons very unsuccessfully.  Wolf's ex-wife, Andrea, is not particularly likeable either and falls in to the story at all costs journalist type; admittedly we do have moments of almost contrition for her worst excesses but then she returns to work and compounds them.  I also found it very far fetched that after commiting grievous bodily harm on a suspect that any police officer, no matter what their rank, would be allowed back in to the force in any capacity, let alone back in their previous role.

There are some nice pieces of humour within the book, but of a decidedly black nature and they are no doubt intended to give us a ringside seat to the camaraderie of the police force.  Unfortunately, they are few and far between and are not evocative enough - Lynda La Plante does the "humanisation" of the police so much better.  The story itself is pretty stop - start and their is insufficient flow to keep you turning the pages past bedtime, putting it down is all too easy if something more interesting comes along.  The denouement is rushed and there is little tension built although that is achieved with the murders of the Mayor and Rana it is sadly missing towards the end.

Not a bad book but not one that makes you cheer the protagonists on in their efforts to capture the killer.  The reasoning behind the murders is woolly at best and the leaps of imagination taken by Wolf and his colleagues are not real feeling in the slightest - there is only so far your gut can take you.  Maybe this is why Edmunds was my favoured character in the book - little angst and a good grasp of research and investigative techniques to secure a conviction; even if he does bend the rules by using his old Fraud IT connections to move his theory along.