Death Watch

by: Jim Kelly

Published by: Minotaur Books

Reviewed by C. L. Rossman

Author Jim Kelly has come out with another mystery novel following the path of his earlier works—“The Water Clock” and “Death Wore White.” This one features rookie detective Peter Shaw and veteran partner George Valentine. Kelly comes by his police procedural knowledge authentically, since his father was a detective at Scotland Yard.

“Death Watch” begins with a very empathetic prologue, when young Bryan Judd feels the death of his twin sister in the bond which the twins share. That’s a vivid scene, and we are left in suspense when Bryan rushes home to tell his dad something’s happened to Norma Jean. But his father brushes him off, leaving us wondering who is responsible for killing her.

Then, eighteen years later “to the day,” Bryan is killed by being burned alive in the hospital incinerator where he works. When Shaw and Valentine take the case, they uncover more crimes going on at the hospital--such as an illegal organ donor ring. And they feel compelled to go back 18 years and try to solve the twin sister’s death as well. The story even manages to involve an ancient case of Shaw’s father, who retired under a cloud years ago as a crooked cop. His partner Valentine was broken in rank and demoted. He now turns up as the son Peter’s partner, a rather unlikely scenario. It all ends with the solution of one case, but the hints of something to come in future, leaving an opening for further books.

The main characters are developed as individuals: Shaw has only one eye, but is afraid to get an artificial one put in; while Valentine, the relic from the past, is a chain-smoker and drinks too much. I began with a fair amount of sympathy for Bryan Judd, but lost him in the first chapter, when he was murdered, and I had a little trouble sympathizing with anyone else after that.

Basically, though, I think readers will welcome this new Kelly mystery. He is exacting on knowledge of investigation and has wound a tightly-knit plot, building blocks of suspense one upon the other. He’s been short-listed for the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel of 2002, and in 2006 won the CWA Dagger in the Library as “an author of crime fiction whose work is giving the greatest enjoyment to readers.”