A House of Knives

"Kings of London" is the second in the Breen and Tozer three book series by William Shaw. It is one of the most enjoyable crime fiction stories I have read in a long time. The series takes place in London, late 1960s; Paddy Breen is a sergeant in the CID, and Helen Tozer is perhaps the very first woman constable to work murder cases. I also read the first book in the series, "She's Leaving Home", and rated it four stars.

For those of you who will consider reading the series, there are two strong recommendations I wish to make: read the series in order since this is very much a continuing story, and secondly, be mindful of alternate titles for each book in the series. Amazon does a fair job in labeling the books, e.g. Breen and Tozer #1 show more though you may wish to consult fantasticfiction.com for a chronological order of releases, grouped by series, stand-alone novels, etc. Search via the author's full name, William Shaw.

So, what makes "Kings" so great? A number of things beginning with an interesting plot. It deals with the death of a minister's son, the shooting of a bent cop, a squat occupied by Hare Krishnas, and possible links between the cases. But there also are a number of very interesting sub-plots involving the deceased cop's widow and son, the recent death of Paddy's father, skimming in the building trades, to name a few.

But even better are some very well written, detailed scenes involving these cops on the job and off - at a Christmas party with a deaf horse, at a bar after hours with their fellow cops and a very out-of-touch supervisor, Paddy walking 7-8 miles across London to a suspect's home describing the ever-changing neighborhoods (check Google Maps for a view of Hampsted Heath's HighPoint), at a come-together event with John and Yoko where police are out-maneuvered by 15 young women preventing one of their own from being arrested. And messages....you want "messages" - Paddy ruminating on the years he spent caring for his ailing father, Tozer considering resignation to aid her aging parents manage their farm, the early days of the drug revolution in London....

It's 391 pages, but it flies along fast. There's a third book out there but I'm going to wait a bit before reading it. Hopefully it won't be the last drink in the bottle. But Shaw's June 2018 release is not Breen and Tozer #4...... show less

An unexplained death is something to occupy the mind.

Last year I read the first book in this series and really enjoyed it so I was pretty excited to read this book. Unfortunately I ended up liking the first book a bit more than this one. I don't feel like Breen and Tozer had the same chemistry and the investigation in this one could be boring at times. Also, don't even get me started on how annoying Breen's co-workers were in this one.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the first book was Breen and Tozer's growing friendship. In this one at times they didn't seem as good of friends as before. Tozer seemed annoyed with Breen a lot and that had me annoyed with her. Ultimately Tozer is there for Breen when he needed her (and the show more other way around) but it just wasn't the same.

The investigation into the deaths had its interesting moments but there were definitely some pretty boring parts in the middle. Breen is pretty much on his own for most of this (except for occasional help from Tozer) and that really dragged his investigation out. There was some really good action towards the end as Breen closes in on a suspect.

I cannot stand Marilyn and barely tolerate Jones. The way Marilyn throws herself at Breen is pathetic. I wish he would have just rejected her once and for all. I was ecstatic at where she ended up at the end. As for Jones, he could be a real jerk at times.

Overall I did end up enjoying this book but felt that it didn't have the same magic as the first. I do look forward to reading more of this series. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley. show less