The Darkness Around Her by Neil White

          Sadly there is really little to recommend this book, it follows all the same old tropes that are prevalent in the genre and brings little new to the table.  The damaged maverick is a Criminal Defence Lawyer rather than a policeman and much of the action takes place in the Courtroom but other than that it is pretty much the same old tale.  I was hoping for rather more if I'm being honest.

I suppose it didn't help that when I started reading the book I had recently read an article that queried whether there was a Serial Killer operating along the waterways of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Yorkshire.  Some shadowy figure that had been steadily travelling the interconnected canals and choosing victims at random.  This is the basis of the book and it takes the premise that 100 deaths and disappearences over a 20 year period is extreme so there has to be an underlying reason - there is, much of the canal banks are not secure and if you slip and fall you are in the water and it doesn't need to be more sinister than that.

Unfortunately for the reader we have a released murderer who was acquitted on appeal and now makes his living rallying against legal injustice.  Nobody thiks he is really innocent, not even the lawyer who got him freed who just so happens to be our heroes boss.  Yeah, you get where this is going - we all get where this is going and unfortunately it does.  There is an attempt at a twist in the tale but unfortunately it is flagged up early on in the book and even though I was only paying partial attention by that point (I lost the will to involve myself myself about quarter of the way through) I did pick up on it.

The Courtroom scenes stretch credulity with evidence being submitted right on the last minute, indeed being submitted minutes after the police have unearthed it (thanks to our intrepid hero and his investigator sidekick) but well before it has been verified.  Honestly, if the legal system really works in that way then we have no hope for true justice.

I can't recommend this book to anyone that reads much in the genre.  If this is your first foray in to crime fiction you may enjoy it but I'd still recommend steering clear if I'm honest.