Dead Smart

Nobody can hide from the truth …

Eddie Westford is found dead outside the Cardiff City Football ground. His throat has been cut in a cold-blooded attack.  Inspector Marco discovers photographs of Westford sitting in various luxury cars and Westford’s connections with the organised hooligan gangs of Cardiff points to a connection with hardened criminals.

Evidence suggesting Westford is a suspect in a drug related inquiry means that Marco faces having to transfer the investigation to another officer.  But Marco’s gut instinct believes that Westford’s death may be connected to some powerful people in Cardiff and he resists the attempts from his senior officer to have the murder case allocated to another officer.

Marco embarks on a final last minute attempt to prove his theory with disastrous consequences before he finally identifies Westford’s killer.

Biography

I write crime fiction based in Wales and about Wales. The rural landscape of north Wales provides the backdrop to the Inspector Drake novels. And Cardiff the capital of Wales provides the setting for the Inspector Marco novels set in a modern urban environment.
I love the novels of Raymond Chandler, Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Henning Mankell, Val McDermid – the list could go on! And I enjoy watching detective series on the television the recent Hinterland series based near Aberystwyth in Wales was great. One of my favourites is the French series Spiral but The Bridge and Broadchurch and the Rebus series with Ken Stott and Kenneth Branagh in Wallander are great too.

I have been on writing courses at the Welsh Writers Centre in Llanystymdwy, North Wales tutored by Matt Whyman and Marcus Sedgwick as well as crime writing courses with Peter Robinson and Andrew Taylor at the Scottish Writers centre.

I was born in Anglesey an island off the north Wales coast and after leaving school in Holyhead I went to University in London before training as a solicitor/lawyer. I practiced in a small family business doing criminal work in the magistrates and crown courts, divorce and family work. I still live on Anglesey, North Wales near the beach and the mountains of Snowdonia.

My Review:

This is a fast-paced story that brings the reader through a tough murder case. A man is found dead outside the stadium after a football game. His murder is investigated by Inspector Marco. He is a detective who wants to solve the case, but with a deadline looming over him he feels the pressure.

This is a well written story and the character of Inspector Marco shows that his job means something to him and that he wants to solve his cases, not just push them off to someone else or rush the investigation because the victim is not a man of honor. Inspector Marco still treats the victim as an important person and knows that he had a family who wants answers as to how he really died.

I enjoyed reading this story and I look forward to reading more about Inspector Marco and see where his life will lead. The story kept me interested and I was eager to find out who the criminal is and what lead to the murder. The twist of the story was interesting, and I was not leaning that way at all. I was thinking along the same lines as Inspector Marco for a while, but I was surprised by the final arrest. I give this story a 4-star review and look forward to more from Mr. Puleston.