Killjoy by Ann Cleeves, the fourth novel in the Inspector Ramsay series, was first published in 1993. It has now been reissued by Macmillan Publishers.
Stephen Ramsay, a detective inspector with the Northumbria police, and Gordon Hunter, a detective sergeant, are investigating the death of Gabriella ‘Gabby’ Paston, an eighteen year-old high school student.
Her body is found on a weekday evening in November. It is in the boot of a car parked outside the Grace Darling Art Centre in Hallowgate, part of the North Tyneside sprawl.
She had a leading role in a roistering melodrama being presented by the Tyneside Youth Theatre, based at the Art Centre. She had failed to turn up for the latest rehearsal.
Within days, Ramsay and Hunter are able to trace Gabby’s movements until she leaves school around mid-day for a lunch appointment. However, she didn’t arrive at the restaurant. Also, Ramsay is not satisfied with the explanation from her family as to why she moved into lodgings. And, there is a mystery about money being placed regularly for her in a bank savings account.
While Gabby’s death is being investigated, Ramsay’s colleagues are dealing with local hooligans: joy-riding is widespread; cars and shops are being broken into.
To complicate the investigation and Ramsay’s private life, there’s a second murder and the inspector meets a significant other from the past.
Killjoy is a cosy crime novel of just over 200 pages that increases our appreciation of an unassuming, dedicated policeman.
Reviewed by Clive Hodges
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ann grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Her father was a village school teacher. After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs – child care officer, women’s refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard – before going back to college and training to be a probation officer.
In 2006 Ann Cleeves was the first winner of the prestigious Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award of the Crime Writers’ Association for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland series. In addition, she has been short listed for a CWA Dagger Awards – once for her short story The Plater, and twice for the Dagger in the Library award, which is awarded not for an individual book but for an author’s entire body of work.
In 2017, Ann was presented with the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association, the highest honour in British crime writing, at the CWA’s Dagger Awards ceremony in London.
Ann Cleeves was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Sunderland on Tuesday, July 8th, 2014, in recognition of her outstanding achievements as a crime writer. In December 2018, this was followed by an honorary award of Doctor of Letters (Hon DLitt) from Robert Gordon University (RGU) in recognition of her contribution to the world of literature and crime writing. She was awarded a further honorary degree by the University of Liverpool in October 2022.
Ann’s books have been translated into 20 languages. She’s a bestseller in Scandinavia and Germany. Her novels sell widely and to critical acclaim in the United States. Raven Black was shortlisted for the Martin Beck award for best translated crime novel in Sweden in 2007. It has been adapted for radio in Germany – and in the UK where it was a Radio Times pick of the day when it was first broadcast Radio adaptations of Raven Black and White Nights have both been repeated. A television adaptation of The Long Call, the first in Ann’s Two Rivers series set in North Devon, was broadcast in October 2021. Thirteen series of Vera, the ITV adaptation starring Brenda Blethyn, have been shown in the UK and worldwide: series twelve ended on an amazing fiftieth eposode, based on Ann’s novel The Darkest Evening and an episode based on The Rising Tide was broadcast as a Christmas special. A fourteenth series is promised for 2025. There have also been eight series of Shetland, based on – or inspired by – the characters and settings of her Shetland novels, and two further series have been announced, filming in 2024 and 2025.
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