BOOK REVIEW: RAGDOLL, DANIEL COLE

RAGDOLL is the debut novel of author Daniel Cole.  With a second series entry due out in 2018, this is  great news for readers of UK police procedurals. We're emotionally invested pretty soon into the read as RAGDOLL’s strongest inclusion is its large cast of diverse characters.  Some decisions made by the police seem a bit questionable as they are marched through very quickly in order to keep momentum, but it's not that much of a pull away from the enjoyment of this read.  You expect a bit of plot fluidity in a first novel and without great characters,  you are unlikely to bother with book two.

Dark humour is sprinkled throughout RAGDOLL which is a welcome addition to temporarily lighten the mood away from the death and destruction. The characters don't seem to want to perform to our expectations of them and this does work to the advantage of injecting some realism into a novel that has a lot of bodies to deal with plus a fair whack of back story to roll out. Wolf is a complex character who moves through the novel by the seat of his pants, making this more of a personal journey to redemption than at first it might seem. It's fast, it's often funny, there's TV worthy gore, there is realistic emotional drama.  RAGDOLL's cast is a welcome addition to the world of crime fiction and eventually we hope, to the small screen also.