Jack in the Box

Jack in the Box by Graham Ison is what our American friends call a "Police Procedural" That is, it attempts to provide a story following actual investigatory techniques. Graham Ison, being a retired senior police officer, is in an ideal position to supply this. His lead detective is DCI Harry Brock a long time career copper with no illusions about his job or the society in which he does it. His "sidekick" is DS Dave Poole a very well read black man. Incidentaly, why is it that all black men in fiction are six feet tall? I know a lot of black men who are well under average height but perhaps they do not fulfill the white liberal image of the "noble savage". The story opens with the discovery of a burning box which contains what is left of a body. Brock and Poole are called in and with very little to go on Brock suddenly links this with a report of a missing artist. Oh really! Well it is fiction and very good too. This is a real page turner and I devoured it at one sitting much to my wife's disgust as she wanted me to do some gardening. Thank you Mr Ison.