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Patrick Lennon has presented us to with date with a rather off-beat series – powerful, descriptive, atmospheric writing coupled with leftfield plots. The previous two books have been heavy on the weather – this time out the characters have a Fenland dust storm to contend with. Stef Maguire is a military policewoman sent home traumatised from Afghanistan. She's posted to a Cambridgeshire barracks where she's immediately plunged into a murder enquiry. Dan Simmons, a documentary maker who's been embedded with the regiment, is found shot inside the base. Before he dies, he whispers a name to her – the Honey Man. And that's how she comes to track down former cop and PI Tom Fletcher, now living out in the sticks with his wife and two children and producing organic honey. Fletcher has met Simmons in the past, but swears blind the dead man didn't send him anything. There's a lot going on in CUT OUT – Stef and Fletcher conduct their separate enquiries, while the MOD spin-doctors try to keep the lid on Simmons' death. Meanwhile, though, Fletcher's life is in danger as he tries to protect his idyllic new way of life. CUT OUT is part of a series, but easily works as a standalone. In fact, it took me a moment or two to remember any of Fletcher's background, save that he doesn't get on with the police. Lennon has always been a bit parsimonious with inking in Fletcher's back story, and that doesn't change here – I certainly don't remember the wife and kids from the previous book. And I don't think we've ever been told why he's at such odds with his former colleagues. As with fellow East Anglian writer Jim Kelly's books, there's usually a military thread in Lennon's plots. In CUT OUT the regiment is about to be posted to Afghanistan – but there's a maverick soldier on the loose who's coming home with a score to settle. Lennon is a natural storyteller, with an eye for his setting – the bleak Fens and the depressing small towns, alongside the barely suppressed tension in the barracks. He's good, too, at drawing in cameo characters, including the young private walking the regimental pig, and the hired muscle cracking more than just their knuckles. The ending blasts out of a clear blue sky, with some sharp and shocking switchbacks. Lennon's planning a fresh series, so I'm not sure if he's retiring Fletcher or giving him a rest – let's hope it's the latter.
Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, November 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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