THE SLEEPWALKER
Joseph Know (Doubleday)
The Sleepwalker is the third DC Aiden Waits novel by Joseph Knox, and once again, he trawls the mean streets of 21st century Manchester, where substance abusers suck out the contents of soap dispensers in public toilets to get high on the alcohol content, and one local estate is known as Spice World. Knox’s Manchester peers angrily in all directions, probably followed by a hard slap, or a look down a gun barrel. The Sleepwalker kicks off with a bang: a self-confessed murderer of a mother and three children, dying in a closely guarded hospital ward, is firebombed. But Waits should have been in the room, and senior officers question who the real target was. Knox’s novels are not pretty: certainly not for your granny, unless your granny eats iron filings for breakfast. I love them.
Price: £14.99. Info: www.josephknox.co.uk
words Mark Timlin