There’s a mix of joy and humility in reading an author for the first time and finding an unparalleled level of skill, only to find that the author has an extensive backlist and multiple awards over almost 40 years of writing. This is a unique novel (really three books in one), centred around the death of a critic of the absurdity of the revolving door of Tory leadership in UK politics.
The story begins with Phyl, who has left university and is living with her mother and father. Her mother’s own uni friend, Christopher Swann, is visiting, along with his adopted daughter, Rash. Christopher has a blog which is consistently critical of the far-right wing of the Tories, having found their views and its senior members repulsive. He attends a conference held by them nearby but is found dead soon after. Intriguingly, he leaves a written clue, pointing to his killer. However, the only four people who could have murdered him have the same initials.
The first book-within- a-book is a cosy murder mystery examining Swann’s death, and its investigation by about-to-be-retried detective Pru Freeborne.
The next part is a campus novel, focusing on the years Christopher was at Cambridge, along with those now heading that notorious far-right wing.
The third part is auto-fiction, featuring Phyl and Rash, who conduct their own inquiries … although DI Freeborne has always had the investigation under control.
Coe’s writing is sharply funny. His characters leap off the page and his pacing is superb. The mix of police procedural, academic life and life writing is as splendid as it is unexpected. Readers will note wordplay (beginning with the title), along with numerous literary references.
Outstanding.
Reviewed by Bob Moore
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan Coe, born 19 August 1961 in Birmingham, is a British novelist and writer. His work usually has an underlying preoccupation with political issues, although this serious engagement is often expressed comically in the form of satire. For example, What a Carve Up! reworks the plot of an old 1960s spoof horror film of the same name, in the light of the ‘carve up’ of the UK’s resources which some felt was carried out by Margaret Thatcher’s right wing Conservative governments of the 1980s.
Coe studied at King Edward’s School, Birmingham and Trinity College, Cambridge, before teaching at the University of Warwick where he completed a PhD in English Literature. In July 2006 he was given an honorary degree by The University of Birmingham.
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