Journalist-led cosy-ish mystery
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Newly minted journalist Danny Roth ends up darkening the door of John Salmon, embittered veteran of local news and editor of his own magazi—that is, newspaper, The Harrow, which is not about Harrow the area but the act of harrowing, of raking the ground to see what lies beneath. Danny’s in over his head but so is Salmon, as Danny’s impromptu investigation into a local murder collides with nefarious goings-on at the council, decades-long stories that Salmon broke in his inimitable and bull-in-a-china-shop style, and the unceasing encroachment of online news on the real world.

With a little police procedural, class snobbery and plenty of red herrings and wrong turns, this is an entertaining debut that takes no risks and raises little challenge to the reader. The action, the threats, the mysteries are at a pretty constant level, so the novel remains cosy-ish even when more chilling set pieces play out. It’s worth checking out and there’s likely to be a sequel, and probably some sort of tv adaptation in its future.

Lived this it dark humour at its very best big slow horses vibes I loved the old school Fleet Street feel to the setting and I found the subtle satire about the state of the nation really good read