THE POLITICIAN by Tim Sullivan

THE POLITICIAN

Tim Sullivan (timsullivan.co.uk)

Head of Zeus (headofzeus.com)

£20.00

Buy a copy from your favourite independent bookshop

When Peggy Frampton is found, murdered, in the bedroom of her Bristol home it seems, at first glance, to be a robbery gone wrong. But something doesn’t ring true for Detective Sergeant George Cross, who is convinced that there’s more to the death of the city’s one-time mayor than meets the eye. Following her stint in politics, Peggy found fame as an online agony aunt who had as many haters in her following as people who liked her. Add in an unfaithful husband currently having an affair with the daughter of the head of the Albanian mob, a long-running dispute with a property developer and a son with a serious gambling addiction and DS Cross has plenty of leads to follow up as he tries to get to the bottom of his latest case.

I’ve arrived late, as usual, to Tim Sullivan’s DS Cross series, of which The Politician is the fourth entry. Police procedurals can be a tough sell: how do you make your series, and characters, sufficiently different to everyone else’s to make them stand out in the memory of the reader? It’s a challenging genre, even in the small world that is British crime fiction, particularly for the author but also for the reader: why should I pick up this detective story rather than that one? Are they all just going to blend together eventually, so that I’ll have to spend the first quarter of the next book trying to remember who these people are? Or worse, will I even notice if there is no next book? These are not something you’ll need to worry about with Sullivan’s books, as he has found the perfect trick to ensure that you’ll remember this character, and that you’ll keep coming back for more: his secret weapon, if you will.

You see, Detective Sergeant George Cross has Asperger’s.

The prospect of an investigator on the spectrum is a hard one to imagine, because it’s not something you encounter every day. But it doesn’t take very long to find the rhythm of the story and to understand how Cross behaves, and how important his relationship with his partner, Black single mum DS Josie Ottey, is in helping him navigate an often-overwhelming world and communicating with his other colleagues. Cross is abrupt and comes across as rude and difficult to work with, but he struggles with social cues and mores, and behaves in what he believes is the most efficient and effective way possible. He is as sharp as a tack, as evidenced by his understanding of the real circumstances of Peggy Frampton’s death long before anyone else understands where the evidence is pointing.

Cross uses his disability to his greatest advantage, using people’s (sometimes unconscious) prejudices and biases to get information that they might not otherwise reveal: he plays the perfect bumbling policeman and often catches those he is questioning offguard with the well-timed halfway-out-the-door “just one more thing” question, like a modern-day Columbo. He likes to show off when he solves a particularly knotty problem, putting suspects firmly in their place, and making them think twice about who they’re dealing with in the process. Nobody enjoys these times more, it seems, then Ottey, herself; she has long since come to realise that George Cross may well be the smartest man on the force.

The crime at the heart of The Politician is an extremely challenging one and every turn Cross and his team take seems to bring another handful of potential suspects out of the woodwork. This serves not only to showcase Cross’s mental acuity and the excellent relationship he has with his partner, but also to make things more interesting for the reader. This is a story that will keep you on your toes throughout, and keep you guessing until the big reveal. It’s masterfully plotted and populated by an engaging and memorable cast of characters, both new and recurring. The Bristol setting makes a nice change from the expected London and Sullivan treats Cross’s disability with taste and respect, while at the same time showing how the man has made it, as much as possible, an asset to his chosen profession.

Regular visitors will know that I’m not a big fan of jumping into series partway through, but The Politician works well – with the exception of an ongoing, and volume-spanning, personal arc – as a standalone novel, and proves a fine introduction to George Cross and his friends and family. It’s a series I’ll be watching for in the future, and I’ll be making an effort to get caught up on the backlog. If you like intelligent and involved police procedurals, then Tim Sullivan and DS Cross should be right up your street.