THE LOST DETECTIVE
Elspeth Latimer
Story Machine (storymachines.co.uk)
£10.99
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Dan Hennessy is ex-police, a man trying to find his way in a world that was upended in a single, devastating moment when his fiancee – the woman he loved and with whom he had just bought a new house – was killed when she stepped out in front of a police car in the midst of a high-speed chase. Now living rent-free in one of the units of a holiday caravan park, Dan pays his way by doing odd-jobs and heavy-lifting, evicting non-paying guests, and tracking down people who do a runner without paying. He earns a living by driving a taxi for his friend, Hari. When Mrs Faulkner, the lady who owns the caravan park, asks Dan to help him find someone – her baby son disappeared from a garden in Beccles twenty-one years earlier – Dan feels compelled to help her, seeing in her a kindred spirit. There’s something strange going on in the Brecks, where Dan lives: a man has done a runner from the caravan park, leaving behind a set of baby clothes that have obviously been kept for a long time; and someone has been murdered in the solar farm that abuts the caravan park. Could all three be connected in some way? And can Dan trust anyone in the area, especially his former partner, who has just committed the ultimate betrayal?
When we meet him at the start of Elspeth Latimer’s new novel, The Lost Detective, it’s immediately obvious that Dan Hennessy is a broken man. While we don’t know right away (though it doesn’t take long for us to learn) what exactly the problem is, Latimer does a brilliant job of presenting a man who has been through the wringer of life and come out the other side, determined to carry on, but missing some vital ingredient. Working as an odd-job man in a caravan park in exchange for somewhere to live (one of the first things we learn about him is that he has a house, which he bought with his fiancee shortly before she was killed in a horrible accident but, while he visits it and brings flowers occasionally, he has never actually lived in it), or doing taxi runs for his friend’s company. It’s no surprise (and there wouldn’t be much of a story otherwise!) that he finds it hard to walk away from the life of a detective. When a body is found in a nearby solar farm, Dan’s ex-partner gets him into the crime scene; Dan is convinced that the dead man might be the same man that has recently skipped out of the caravan park without paying. Most interesting, though, is the fact that Dan’s landlady/employer, Mrs Faulkner, is just as broken as he is. When she asks him to look into the twenty-one year old disappearance of her baby boy, Felix, Dan has some understanding of how she feels, though both are introverted and private enough not to want to share in this common experience. It’s a sweet and painful thing to witness, as they dance around the subject, the huge hole in their lives that they have in common.
Dan is an interesting protagonist and, as we learn more about him, and watch him at work, we can’t help but wonder how different he might have been while still on the police force. His relationship with the force, and with his ex-partner start out friendly. As Dan continues to dig into the two mysteries – the dead man and the missing baby – those relationships start to stretch towards breaking point. The ex-colleague who was driving the car that killed his fiancee is still on the force and, to Dan’s horror, seems to be getting close to his ex-partner Cassie. Dan feels a sense of betrayal, not helped when he is told in no uncertain terms to stop interfering in the police investigation. While Dan is the eponymous Lost Detective, the story is a two-hander, with a young woman called Jay Olsen holding up the other end. Jay’s father was one of the only witnesses on the day that Mrs Faulkner’s son disappeared. Peter Olsen is now suffering from dementia and Dan finds himself trying to get information from him through the daughter, a jobbing musician who has moved home to look after her father. As the story progresses, Dan feels the stirrings of something he never expected to feel again, and which take him by surprise: attraction. Jay, meanwhile, is starting to doubt her father: could he have been involved in the baby’s disappearance? Why, exactly, was he on the path behind the house from which the baby disappeared all those years ago?
As well as engaging and realistic characters, The Lost Detective has a well-developed sense of place. We find ourselves in the Brecks, “a hinterland that reached from south Norfolk across the border into Suffolk.” It’s a rural area in which Latimer firmly grounds her story, and it’s clear from the outset that Dan belongs here, that the surrounding area has informed the man he has become.
Elspeth Latimer’s new novel has a dark heart, and is driven by a protagonist who feels, almost immediately, like an old friend. If you’re looking for fast-paced thrills, you’ll need to look elsewhere, but The Lost Detective is an engaging story with a hook that catches the reader early, and keeps them engaged through to the satisfying conclusion. It has a decidedly noirish feel (Norfolk Noir, anyone?), reinforced by the tragic figure at the centre of the story. Dan Hennessy is a character that it’s impossible not to like, and his backstory makes him a character that we need to know more about (a little birdie told me we might see Dan again in the future, but keep that to yourself). There aren’t too many odd-jobbing, taxi-driving private investigators out there, so this wonderful combination of author and character brings a fresh perspective to the genre. Published by a small, independent publisher, The Lost Detective might very well slip under your radar; don’t let it. Get a copy, read it and share the word.
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