Ashes to Ashes

This is the first book I've read by this author and I did enjoy it.  Patrick Gillard and Ingrid Langley are a husband a wife team.  He is employed by one of the more secretive branches of the Metropolitan police and has connections with the army and MI5 and MI6.  Ingrid, his wife and a novelist is his part time assistant/consultant.

Their exact standing is deliberately left vague though I'm sure if you read more books in this series things become clearer.  Patrick is on a sabbatical while he make sup his mind whether to opt for a rather less dangerous job.  His father is vicar of the parish in which they live and he asks for Patrick's help when a parishioner comes to see him about what she thinks is a mistake with her husband's recent cremation.

This apparently simple problem - which on the face of it is probably an administrative mix-up swiftly leads to a trail of murder and mayhem and gang violence among other things.  I found the two main characters interesting and the story is well narrated by Ingrid.  I thought it was well written but the body count and violence was a bit too much for me though none of it is particularly graphically described. 

I think I shall probably read some more in the series but people need to be aware of the violence and perhaps skip the bits which look to be a bit too much for them.  Cremation ashes I can stomach but partly boiled body parts sent through the post are another matter!  I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review purposes.  Review will go live on my blog on 17 February and on Amazon on publication day.  It is live on Goodreads.