posted on 26 Nov 2015

The Worm in the Bud by Chris Collett.

The Worm in the Bud, published in 2004, introduces the reader to DI Tom Mariner and is the first of Chris Collett’s series of six crime novels. Number seven is in the pipeline and having just finished The Worm in the Bud, I’m hooked and I’m looking forward to reading the second book, ‘Blood of the Innocents’. The Worm in the Bud unravels the mystery of journalist Eddie Barham’s death in suspicious circumstances, its impact on Eddie’s two siblings, Jamie and Anna and relationships arising from the ensuing crime investigation.

I’ve lived and worked in Birmingham for nearly 50 years and therefore enjoyed the familiarity with names and places in the novel. Chris’s depiction of well- known and lesser known landmarks around the city is sharp and original. However, it is the weaving together of the murder investigation and how Jamie, as a young person with autism, is implicated which is sensitively accomplished. The story’s authenticity is attributable to Chris’s professional career in education, as a teacher and lecturer in the field of special needs combined with her research into police procedures in crime investigations. It touches on child abuse and trafficking, the pharmaceutical industry and prostitution but the detail relating to Jamie’s autism, his interactions and idiosyncrasies is particularly well-observed and informed.

Individual foibles and weaknesses create believably human characters. The story evolves at a pace which allows the reader to grasp at the events behind the motivation for Eddie’s murder but without giving too much away. The denouement is dramatic, tying up most of the strands of the story satisfactorily but allowing Mariner’s character to be developed further. A highly readable crime novel.

Gill McGillivray

26.11.15.