Paul Charles locates the action of his novel in a place he knows well – Donegal; and it’s a place I know well too, so I can attest to how accurate he has caught the shades of local colour.

RAMELTON, County Donegal.

He writes convincingly about the tracking down of a murderer, exposing along the way some of the many scandalous, small-town goings on that have some bearing on the killing in question. The victim’s demise forces the unseemly details of the lust-life of several local worthies under the nose of Detective Starrett.

Starrett’s personal demons are also paraded for the reader’s benefit as happens with many detectives who are set the task of bringing villains to justice, and those demons, as is the usual habit, come in the form of  beautiful women. Two beautiful women to be exact. Which one will he chose?

But let’s be generous to Detective Starrett of the Garda Síochána na héireann (Irish Police Force – I’m sure you knew that, but just in case). The murder that exercises his little grey cells is one that has been effected in a particularly unpleasant manner: the victim has been crucified in close imitation of the fate that befell Jesus Christ.

The strangest aspect of the crime for me however is not the method of execution, or that it was carried out in a Church, or that the particular Church in which it occurred doesn’t appear to put much store by the crucifixion of Christ. What strikes me most forcefully is that the local, largely Roman Catholic, populace doesn’t seem to be too perturbed when they hear the news. 

Paul Charles keeps the reader’s interest with a large shoal of red herrings as a variety of likely and unlikely candidates fall under suspicion. The reader is also most keen to discover what reason lay behind the crucifixion – wouldn’t shooting or stabbing have done the job just as well? We are also keen to discovered if love is to blossom between Starrett and the state pathologist, Dr Sam Aljoe. Okay, Sam is short for Samantha, I’ll give you that but I’m giving nothing else away.

The events are as contrived as they are improbable, some of the characters larger than life and some not all that convincing, but hey – it’s a fast-paced detective novel, and one that’s worth the read.

Dust of Death by Paul Charles published by Brandon.