2013; 308 pages. Book 1 (of 4) in “Unhuman” series. New Author? : Yes. Genre : Dark Humor; Crime-Mystery; Paranormal; Culinary (Culinary?! WTF, Amazon? Where’d ya come up with that one?). Laurels: Shortlisted for the “Impress Prize for New Writers” (2012). Overall Rating : 9*/10.
There’s been a strange breaking-and-entering
at Mr. Roman’s estate. Someone smashed open one
of the windows, climbed through, and stole one of Mr. Roman's violins.
It
was a good violin; you could even call it an expensive one. But it wasn’t a collector’s item, and there
were many more valuable items in the house that were left untouched. Apparently Mr. Roman was quite upset
about all this; he hanged himself shortly thereafter.
The
police have assigned Inspector Hobbes to investigate the case. He’s quirky, can be heavy-handed at times,
but has an excellent record for solving these kind of perplexing crimes. And tagging along will be Andy Caplet, a
journalist with the local Sorenchester
and District Bugle, known for his poor record as a reporter. It seems no one else at the office wanted
this assignment, so they sent Andy.
It seems this heist is just the start of a string of robberies in the
Sorenchester area. A short time later, cups and knives,
and even people are going missing. Will
Inspector Hobbes be able to figure out what’s going on, and will Andy’s assistance, help or hinder him?
What’s To Like...
Andy
and Hobbes are an entertaining pair of protagonists – somewhat reminiscent of the Sherlock
Holmes & Dr. Watson team. But there are lots of differences too, and Wilkie Martin is to be commended
for not slavishly duplicating the famous duo. I’ve read some of the modern-day
authors who write “new” Sherlock Holmes series (they can do this because the copyright on that name has expired),
none of them yet has come close to matching Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing skills.
The
story is set in the fictitious cities of Sorenchester and Pigton, which are
situated in the real Cotswolds area of England, and which I presume is the author’s
stomping grounds. Unsurprisingly, it
is written in English, not American, which meant oodles of new words for
me. You can munch on chocolate Hobnobs (I found some of these over here with some help
from my friends), get your food via a takeaway, or make a slap-up
meal of your own, have a top-up
if your drink runs low, and hope that your manky
rug isn’t pong. There were several dozen more of these
expressions in the book; a few more of
them are listed below. I was in
Anglophile heaven.
the primary plotline was well-contrived – a string of burglaries of a strange set of
artifacts. Andy and Hobbes know the purloined pieces are connected in some way, the fun is figuring out exactly
how. The secondary storyline concerns
the book’s genre itself – are there some paranormal critters scampering around
Merrie Olde Englande, or is Andy’s imagination just running wild? The reader gets a pretty good idea what the
answer to that is by the end, yet a sliver of doubt remains.
I
thought the humor was handled very well.
Puns, wit, and tall tales abound, yet it’s not overdone. The end result is a funny story, but not a
silly one. The ending is suitably
climactic and exciting. The final chapter
is essentially an epilogue, with the various plot threads being resolved via
Hobbes explaining to Andy how the evildoers did their evil. Shades of Holmes and Watson finales!
I loved the use of one of my favorite words, “Daliesque”,
and chuckled when “thistledown” made an appearance. I don't recall ever running across this word before this year, and now this is the third time in 2019 it’s cropped up in books I'm reading.
The chapters are of moderate length: 19 of
them covering 308 pages. That averages out to around 16 pages per chapter. Amazon touts the book as being a “cozy”
mystery, and for the most part it is.
But it should be noted that there is a fair amount of cussing; I thought it fit in well, but cozy
purists may wince at this. Inspector Hobbes and the Blood is a standalone
story as well as the first book in a series.
Kewlest New Word. . .
Shtum (adj.;
British; informal) : silent, non-communicative.
Others: Cagoule (n., British);
Hob (n.
British); Myxmatosis
(n.); Scarpered
(v.; British).
Excerpts...
“Right, d’you
fancy a cup of tea?”
“Yes, please,” I
said.
“Good. Make me one as well, would you?” A banana-sized finger pointed to the bottle.
“Oh, right. Of course.
Umm … do you take milk or sugar?”
“Two lumps of
each, please.” (loc.
478)
“What are you
here for? I’ve done nothing.”
“Nothing?” said
Hobbes. “I’m not sure about that. Didn’t you knock out a customer’s teeth on
Wednesday?”
Featherlight
scowled. “That’s a lie. I did no such thing – it was on Tuesday and
it wasn’t all of them. I didn’t hear the
customer complain.”
“He was unconscious.”
“He was out of
order, whinging about a dead mouse in his beer when it was only a bit of one.” (loc. 1471)
Kindle Details...
Inspector
Hobbes and the Blood currently sells for $2.99 at Amazon. The other three books in the series are all
in the $4.07-$4.99 price range.
Alternatively, you can buy the first three books in a bundle; it goes
for $6.29
right now. Other than one short story (52 pages) that goes for $0.99, I think that’s all the Wilkie Martin books available at
Amazon for now.
“Your reputation for
stupidity doesn’t do you justice.” (loc.
4451)
A
number of Amazon reviewers totally hated Andy, consequently giving Inspector Hobbes and the Blood some extremely low
ratings. Well, Andy is certainly not the
noblest of characters. He’s insanely
jealous of a coworker, even to the point of planting false evidence to
implicate him. He also repeatedly goes
snooping around in Hobbes’s house, uncovering secrets he’s not meant to know
about.
Everyone’s
entitled to his own opinion, but personally I like anti-heroes. They are always more interesting than can’t-do-anything-wrong protagonists,
and I have a feeling that Andy will mature a bit as the series progresses.
9 Stars. I’ve been meaning to read Inspector Hobbes and the Blood for quite some time
now, and was pleasantly surprised by the book’s charm, particularly since it is
the author’s debut effort. Here’s hoping
he puts out many more books, and that the 4-volume Inspector Hobbes series is
not yet completed.
