Harry Devlin, criminal solicitor and tireless sleuth, returns in a tale of his own death.

In Martin Edwards’ latest Harry Devlin mystery, Waterloo Sunset, we see a fresh foray into a well-worn genre – the lawyer involved in a murder mystery.

Harry Devlin, for readers who have missed the previous seven books in the series, is a criminal hack who has the delightful knack of having dead bodies turn up all around him. In this latest incarnation he receives a letter, seven days before Midsummer’s Eve, announcing his death. All very Agatha Christie, you might think. This is, however, not just some old hack’s tale of murder and mystery from the corridors of the legal profession, but a well-conceived and executed novel.

While the story is filled with delightful and amusing cliches, there is in fact a sense of realism to the novel. Undoubtedly the advantage that this series has when compared with other ‘hero lawyers’ who ply their trade within this genre is that the author knows the business about which he writes. Edwards is an experienced solicitor and a partner at Mace & Jones – and this shows in his writing. It is also worth noting that the titles for all the books in this series come from chart songs which became hits in the 1960s – All the Lonely People, Suspicious Minds, I Remember You, Yesterday’s Papers. His knowledge and understanding both of the law and of the city of Liverpool, however, are bang up to date, and this familiarity provides a welcome weight and credibility to his characters. It also provides this novel with its comedic moments and in-joke parodies on clients, secretaries and the legal profession en masse.

There is also in the author a sense of mischief where reference is made by him to this learned publication. He states that ‘the Gazette isn’t quite the gripping read it used to be’ and while it would in many ways be a delightful riposte to say that the latest Harry Devlin mystery falls within the same trap, it would be both churlish and unfair to do so.

What would you do if you received a letter announcing your death? Take it seriously? Or file it with the other ‘complaints’ from disgruntled clients refusing to pay their excessive bills? When someone Devlin knows subsequently dies, and he starts to receive further menacing messages, his mind turns to those who might want him dead and have the means of fulfilling the prophesy: clients angry over past indiscretions; the return of a former love who conveniently happens to be the ex-wife of a gangster or his secretary’s boyfriend. Conversations and nuances start to take an ominous turn and Devlin faces a race against time to find the killer before he becomes his next victim.

Waterloo Sunset is an entertaining and delightful investigative thriller. The storyline is fast-paced, and while at times it is somewhat predictable it is nevertheless a fun and compelling yarn.

  • Also out by the same author in paperback is The Arsenic Labyrinth, published by Allison & Busby. ISBN 978-0-7490-8004-4

Jason M Hadden is a solicitor advocate and presenter with BPP