In Good People, author Ewart Hutton introduces Welsh/Italian cop D.S. Glyn Capaldi, star of three mysteries so far. He is a maverick cop in every sense and the tension is wire taut throughout.
Glyn has been drummed out to the lowest post available, patrolling the countryside in Wales where he can do no harm, after a case went horribly wrong in Cardiff. He's not wanted or welcomed there, a nuisance with a past to be put up with. The mystery starts in the first few pages and doesn't let up. A gang of rugby mates have picked up a young blonde hitchhiker and taken her to their remote cabin. She has gone missing. The next story was they were hijacked and she was taken away. The next story was she left on her own - backpacking to Amsterdam. Capaldi is not on or wanted on this case, but manages to pick up clues he can run with. The girl may have been prostitute, the meeting arranged. She is not the first girl to go missing. Before long, residents of the sleepy town of Dinas will have their lives turned upside down and all their secrets revealed.
Capaldi is a unique detective, a thorn in everyone's side. No one on the force from the top to the bottom respects him or gives him any help, yet he is determined to peel back the layers by whatever means - including stalking, intimidating, lying, or coercing. The locals in Dinas he interviews have pious contempt for his intrusion into their pristine lives, that is, until he starts to uncover a dark web of deceit that includes years of kidnapping and serial abuse. I read a lot of these mysteries and this is truly nasty, maybe a bit too dark.
The tension in Ewart's writing is the star. From the first few pages, Capaldi is relentless, it's all about revealing the truth. There is minimal backstory on Capaldi himself - I don't even know what he looks like. A little romance creeps in, but this is all about the pursuit. I haven't read a mystery where the tension on the case was as focused until the very end. It just won't stop.
It is an impressive debut that was shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award in 2012. Without hesitation I started reading the next in the series, Dead People, even before I finished this one.
2012 / Tradeback / 326 pages
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