Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Road Kill: The Duchess of Frisian Tun by Pete Adams.
Pete Adams is an architect with a practice in Portsmouth, UK, and from there he has, over forty years, designed and built buildings across England and Wales. Pete took up writing after listening to a radio interview of the writer Michael Connolly whilst driving home from Leeds. A passionate reader, the notion of writing his own novel was compelling, but he had always been told you must have a mind map for the book; Jeez, he could never get that.
Et Voila, Connolly responding to a question, said he never can plan a book, and starts with an idea for chapter one and looks forward to seeing where it would lead. Job done, and that evening Pete started writing and the series, Kind Hearts and Martinets, was on the starting blocks. That was some eight years ago, and hardly a day has passed where Pete has not worked on his writing, and currently, is halfway through his tenth book, has a growing number of short stories, one, critically acclaimed and published by Bloodhound, and has written and illustrated a series of historical nonsense stories called, Whopping Tales.
Pete describes himself as an inveterate daydreamer, and escapes into those dreams by writing crime thrillers with a thoughtful dash of social commentary. He has a writing style shaped by his formative years on an estate that re-housed London families after WWII, and his books have been likened to the writing of Tom Sharpe; his most cherished review, "made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think".
Pete lives in Southsea with his partner, and Charlie the star-struck Border terrier, the children having flown the coop, and has 3 beautiful granddaughters who will play with him so long as he promises not to be silly.
About the book
Cataclysmic events have occurred in the decorous upper middle class enclave within Southsea, Portsmouth, on the south coast of England.
But what were the circumstances that contributed to this violent clash involving a Sherman tank and a bazooka? The strange occurrence is Investigated by Lord Everard Pimple, a naive, upper class twit who not only inadvertently opens a can of worms, but has an introduction into the world of womanly wiles.
Everard's life is about to blow up like an atom bomb... he just doesn't know it yet. But after the dust settles, will he still be standing?
This is a kind of a spin-off of the Kind Hearts And Martinets series, a life after scenario for certain characters. Characters who aren't bound by the rule of law as much as in the KHAM series, which takes it from a very much police procedural to a character driven experience of unfortunate mishaps and oddities, as the DaDa Detective Agency attempt to solve their first case.
Adams takes a slightly different approach this time in regards to writing style and voice. It has a more quirky and eccentric tone with intermittent dialogues with the reader or listener. As if someone were pausing a play to gossip alongside about the characters and the events.
In fact the story often reads like a staged play with characters straight out of a combo between a Poirot episode, where the crimes are all set in one grand place and an Agatha Raisin comedy of unfortunate events.
I think it could have done with more clarity, less assumption that the reader will get the gist and comprehend both mood, style and the flow. It's a read that fits into the category of cosy crime with an emphasis on the quirk and eccentricity.
It's filled with dark British humour, which might be a bit of a Marmite read for some, but others will find hilariously entertaining. Sharp wit and typical awkward class system structures.
Buy Road Kill: The Duchess of Frisian Tun at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published in paperback and digital formats by Next Chapter Publishing on 19th August 2020. Buy at Amazon com.
Read my review Irony in the Soul by Pete Adams.
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