Hodder

THE TWILIGHT TIME is the debut novel from ex-cop Karen Campbell - featuring Sergeant Anna Cameron as the central character.  In 2009 Campbell won Best New Scottish Writer at the Scottish Variety Awards, and there is now a second book out:  After the Fire, which switches the viewpoint to two characters from the first book - Jamie and his wife Cath.

But THE TWILIGHT TIME is a book that was recommended to me by somebody whose preferences I follow closely, and coincidentally was nominated as a discussion book on one of my email lists, so it was with some pleasurable anticipation that it was shunted up the To Be Read list.

When Anna Cameron is bought into a local station as part of an active policing unit there's some disquiet around the place - she's mostly been a head office / policy sort of police officer before this and nobody's all that convinced about her ability to take over and run a unit.  Fragile emotionally after Jamie dumped her anyway, discovering that she'll be working with him puts her under increased (self-imposed) strain, and when she finds that there is active resentment against her from other members of the squad, she starts to fall apart.  Becoming obsessed with the murder of Ezra, a frail, old Polish man doesn't help her cause with anybody - especially as it isn't one of her own cases.  When she is injured in the chase for a man who has been carving up the faces of prostitutes, Anna doesn't cope at all well when Jamie's wife Cath (an ex-cop in her own right, with a very bad case of post-natal depression), reaches out to her, having known Ezra as well.

There's a hefty dose of angst, personal instability, depression, obsession, resentment, dislike, mistrust, lack of understanding, and selfishness in just about everybody in THE TWILIGHT TIME.  To the point where it can be very off-putting.  It's not often that you read a book and come out of it realising that there was a point in the narrative where you'd have cheerfully slapped just about every character.  As somebody commented in the discussion we had about the book - there is a fine line between tough and obnoxious and some readers may choose to believe that Anna is tough - and others will be voting obnoxious.  Personally I'm not adverse to a flawed central character, and I liked that Anna wasn't perfect and that there were signs of redeeming factors, although I will admit in THE TWILIGHT TIME there were too many flaws in too many of the characters.   Having said that, I like characters that aren't too perfect and screw up and have bad days and are a bit grumpy and a bit stupid and occasionally daft as a brush, but stick with things, and care about something - and I really liked the way that Anna and Cath both cared about what happened to a lonely old man.

In terms of plot - there were some good touches, with the mystery of the death of Ezra, and what seems to be, on the face of it a racist plot, quite interesting.  It was also touching to be reminded that an old man could die, alone and mostly unforgotten and unremarked on.  The other case that is being pursued by Anna's team is the carving up of prostitute's faces.  This is resolved reasonably well, although at points it does seem to disappear into all the personal stuff a little, and in both investigations there were a few procedural twists and turns that didn't make a lot of sense.  This is a debut book however, and sometimes they can have some flaws.  The question really is would reading THE TWILIGHT TIME make me want to pick up the second book and it certainly did that.  

You can probably imagine the reaction - firstly the blurb "oh no, extreme dislike segueing into romantic tension AGAIN". The front of the book - Stalker. Arsonist. Killer. "deep groaning". The opening lines where a young homeless girl is dying - not caring what happens to her if her much loved German Shepherd dog is dead - and we've got another thing that I struggle with - dog's in jeopardy / animal cruelty. But on the other hand there's an intriguing comment by Stuart MacBride, and the thought that I find it really hard to justify reading all about cruelty to people but struggle when it comes to animals (goodness knows that's a very personal stance, and most definitely not a comment on how other people choose to approach their reading choices!)

But start reading and there's something much more to TORCH. Anderson covers some pretty gruesome subject matter with a deftness of touch and a compassionate viewpoint for all of her characters that is well fleshed out for a book of such a small size (particularly in this day and age where door-stoppers seem to have taken over). TORCH is one of a series of books based around Dr Rhona MacLeod and there's enough smattering of backstory in this first edition to give you some idea of who she is, without necessarily pulling the emphasis away from the investigation - and from the story of Macrae into the bargain. Mind you, I'm not sure I'd be calling him just a hot-tempered misogynist - sure he is partly that - but he's also deeply troubled and damaged in his own right.

The plot behind the death of the young girl is complicated - there are other fires - there is obviously something deeply personal and threatening going on with the investigation, and that's perhaps the only quibble I'd have with TORCH - cruelty to animals where the author uses the events to provide some insight into somebody or something happening is one thing - but using it to prove how bad the already indefensibly bad are, jarred for this reader anyway.

Aside from that, albeit brief disappointment, there's also great kindness and some uplifting characters and events in TORCH and whilst I squirmed a lot throughout the book, it's a series I'll be seeking out.

Driftnet
Torch
Deadly Code
Dark Flight
Blood Red Roses (novella)