Gosh, I am exhausted! I just stayed up until 3 this morning, gripped, absolutely gripped by Chris Speck’s latest book, “East of East”. It ‘stars’ Detective Inspector Needler and the blurb tells us that “m.urder comes to East Hull – a murder on East Park,, a Hull copper with a reputation…”. The author, Chris Speck is a great writer from Hull, and his books certainly have not only the city as background, but the city almost as a character. He has written a variety of different novels and “East is East” is the second Alex Needler book, and the first to introduce her new partner, Igor Kaminski.
This is the Amazon blurb: “This is East Park. A teenager’s been shot and killed. It doesn’t happen round here. DI Needler’s father played for Rovers in the eighties. She’s inherited his stubborn streak. Maybe that’s why she’s got a reputation for being difficult. She’s been paired with that new Polish detective transferred up from London. Needler isn’t very good at doing what she’s told either. So when the DCI explains that this is an open-and-shut case, she isn’t convinced. There’s more to it. A smuggling operation on the docks. A rotten egg on the force feeding them information. Someone wants the investigation buried. If Needler knew what was good for her, she’d leave well alone.
‘East is East’ is an absolutely cracking read, and also very interesting. The characters are realistic and believable, sometimes frighteningly so, sometimes revoltingly so – (wait until you meet ‘the Nana’!) The story is engrossing and really gripping as Alex and Igor try to find the culprit in the murder of a young teenage lad. At times I was so engaged I read too quickly and had to reread parts again. Alex Needler, from whose point of view we mostly see the events and action, is a tough woman. She is a detective inspector who has a strong moral compass even though she is prepared to do things in an unorthodox way, not necessarily exactly by the book. We begin to understand her background and history and why she is as she is, which is a whole other story. However, everything we learn about her has relevance to the plot. Her new partner, Igor Kaminski, is completely different – a Polish officer who left his country for what he hopes will be a better life for him and as his family in Hull. The third main character is in fact the city of Hull itself,not just as a background, but its history, people, and traditions.
I’m not necessarily recommending that you stay up until three in the morning to finish “East of East”, but I am recommending you read it. It is fast paced, interesting, intriguing and, at times an edge-of-the-seat read. There are shocks and surprises, and believable, engaging and, at times, frustrating characters
