Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The point, so many armchair detectives will sagely advise, is that the act of murder in literature is not followed closely because the reader wants to feel the essence of the criminal mind at work, but to know that the restoration of order is forthcoming, and that justice, be it natural, or in some macabre fashion, will be swift.

The public are not in the mood to murder another individual, but there is always the linger in the mind on how they would confront a killer if they were confronted with the evidence, if they caught the perpetrator in the act; and from the safety of their own armchair, they can don the affectation, the mantle of the great detective and become judge, jury, and executioner, in one leisurely turn of a page.

Worthy of Ruth Rendell herself, whilst playing more to the gallery of slight gore, 2017’s In The Mood…For Murder sees the flourishing talent of Dave McCluskey take root with the expertise and memory of Tony Bolland, and become a book that set the bar high for the Merseyside author.

To set a book in the community you grew up in, without fictionalising the city’s name or one of the key historical buildings that many have come to associate with the town when it comes to the importance of music, takes courage, but like all good authors, taking the risk of association is part of the joy, the venting and the colour all combining in a way that makes the reader keen, responsive to finding out more about the time the novel is set in and the people that may have been an inspiration to the writer.

To have someone by your side whilst you write is invaluable, and whilst this is very much a book that set the seeds of what has followed in Dave McClusky’s portfolio since, it is to Tony Bolland historical knowledge of the area, of the scene, that the two minds have merged and created a book that stands out, that inverts the standard set out by many a crime writer, and leaves the reader facing a dichotomy about the restoration of order, because who in the end doesn’t secretly want to see someone avoid getting caught for the crime, just so the story doesn’t end.

A startling and perspective novel that points the way to how Dave McCluskey has reshaped the idea of locally inspired fiction.

Ian D. Hall