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Allison and Busby, August 2005
Reviewed by Sunnie Gill
Detective Chief Inspector Michael Thackeray of the West Yorkshire police
is a man with a lot of emotional baggage from his past. Twelve years
earlier Thackeray came home to find that his wife had drowned their baby
son and then attempted suicide. Both sets of grandparents blamed
Thackeray’s drinking and neglect of his wife for these events. Now a
recovering alcoholic and living with journalist Laura Ackroyd, Thackeray
seems to be getting his life back together again, when he receives a phone
call saying his wife is in hospital and is on the brink of death after a
heart attack. This drags up all the emotional turmoil of the past and
distracts him from his work.
His work at the moment is the murder of the headteacher of a local school
for disturbed children. A recently expelled pupil at the school has been
arrested by DCI Hutton, who conducted the investigation while Thackeray
was away working elsewhere. On the surface the evidence suggests it’s an
open and shut case, but Hutton is racist and the boy is black and a number
of people at the school don’t believe the boy capable of such violence.
There is also the added complication of a concerted campaign to have the
school closed down by residents of the up-market area in which the school
is located because they claim it’s lowering the tone of the neighbourhood
and lowering property values.
Thackeray is initially content to accept the results of the investigation
but Laura starts pressuring him to look into the matter more closely. This
puts strain on their relationship. After his Detective Sergeant also
raises concerns Thackeray reluctantly starts checking up. He not only
uncovers fresh evidence, but he also finds one of his Detective Constables
is on the verge of lodging a complaint against DCI Hutton for racism.
Hutton is also trying to stir up trouble for Thackeray over his past which
pushes him to the brink of drinking again.
The first two or three chapters of FALSE WITNESS are slow going. The
sentences are over long and convoluted. Perhaps the author was trying to
give us just a little too much information here. However, if you can get
past them the book does pick up after that.
FALSE WITNESS is a rather gloomy book. Thackeray is cranky,
uncommunicative and self-absorbed. His sergeant, Kevin Mower, loyal in the
extreme, covers Thackeray’s back and does most of the investigating.
Thackeray’s girlfriend, Laura is long suffering in the face of his
irascibility. While Laura, Mower and Thackeray’s Superintendent are
supportive and likeable, Thackeray is not. And the racist police officer,
DCI “Len” Hutton seems to be little more than a stereotype.
It’s a shame in a way that so much of the book dealt with Thackeray and
his personal life, because it detracted from the investigation of the
murder which was much more interesting than the angst and the conflicted
internal dialogue of Thackeray.
FALSE WITNESS is the 10th in the Michael Thackeray and Laura Ackroyd
series.
Originally published on Murder and Mayhem, January,
2006
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