Book Log 2014 #32: The Black Country by Alex Grecian

Inspector Walter Day takes his murder-solving skills on the road, as a potential killing in a small coal-mining town in the Midlands leads the locals to call Scotland Yard for help. It's clear from the start that Day and his team - Sergeant Hammersmith, Doctor Kingsley, Kingsley's daughter, and even Day's wife - aren't wanted in the town, with residents actively working against them to protect the town's secrets, even in the face of a likely murder.

I have mixed feelings about setting the second book of the series outside of London. On the one hand, the Midlands setting allows for some very different story telling and plays on the pasts of both Day (originally from Devon, so a return to an area that's not London) and Hammersmith (whose life in the mines as a child was well documented in the first book). On the other hand, I wonder if it's too early to set a book outside of London. The first book set the tone for the newly-formed Murder Squad and the tensions between the squad and the regular police as well as within the squad. The second book could have helped develop that further, adding complexity to the relationships. By moving outside of the city, we don't get that development, which may lead to the third book having to cover old ground to get the reader back up to speed.

But that's a larger concern for the series. As far as this book goes, we do get development in the relationship between Day and his colleagues, and even between Day and his wife (though her appearance in this book is brief and a little confusing). The Midlands setting is very different from London, though the use of a small, backwards town with its own ways and superstitions could be seen as a little cliche. But I enjoyed it overall, and plan to keep up with the series.