Sergeant Belinda 'Billy' Kidd is driving home from the airport, jet-lagged and ready to resign from a career that has left her traumatised. Menopause has robbed her confidence too - now she's a traffic cop who's afraid to drive. When brake lights haemorrhage up the motorway, the cars grind to a halt. Moments later she finds a dead driver in a black sedan.
He has a metal skewer in his neck. But how? The killer can't have left the scene without being spotted by the dozens of witnesses - so he must still be there, among them. If the traffic jam stays put, they're all in danger; if the traffic clears, she'll lose her suspect. The clock is ticking, but she doesn't know how fast.
It's such a pleasure to be hosting the blog tour for Dead Mile by Jo Furniss. Many thanks to Bonnier Books and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for inviting me and for my advance copy of the novel.
Most people have been caught up in a rush hour traffic jam on the motorway; boredom giving way to frustration and even road rage at times. However, nobody expects to come across a murder – particularly one that appears to be meticulously planned, rather than as a result of a violent altercation. In Dead Mile, Jo Furniss takes the familiar concept of a locked room mystery and gives it a fresh, contemporary spin as Sergeant Belinda 'Billy' Kidd almost single-handedly has to figure out who – without being observed by any of the scores of stationary witnesses – managed to kill the man in the black sedan.
After the traffic grinds to a halt and people begin to get out of their cars, the dead man's body is soon discovered. Billy quickly spots the skewer in the back of his neck and realises he's been murdered. Dramatic events elsewhere in the city means they are gridlocked for an indeterminate period and with this stretch of the motorway barricaded by a claustrophobically high fence, the killer is trapped with them. It's up to Billy to work out what happened but as she tries to ascertain who she can trust, she also has to learn to trust her instincts and eventually begin to forgive herself.
Billy is an unusual protagonist; she isn't a detective and is on the brink of retiring from a job which has evidently left her traumatised and wracked with regrets and guilt. As the novel progresses, we gradually find out more about her past and the reason why she is returning from an extended holiday in Australia. She's a middle-aged woman who is menopausal and lacking in confidence but it isn't just her age beginning to conspire against her and as a vastly experienced traffic cop, it's clear that something terrible occurred to leave her so fearful of driving. She is also still haunted by a personal tragedy which altered the course of her life.
As she does her best to secure and investigate the scene of the crime, her resourcefulness is impressive but throughout the book, she is a thoroughly relatable character. There is no action hero type bravado here as she uses her holiday gin haul to help cordon off the dead man's car, struggles with the inevitable discomfort of a full bladder and belly flops over the central reservation to talk to drivers on the other side of the road. She is both helped and hindered by the people trapped alongside her and it becomes apparent that they all have their secrets.
While the main third-person narrative follows Billy, there are occasional first-person chapters told from the perspective of some of her fellow drivers – each of whom give her reason to question whether she should consider them suspects. They all seem to be hiding something and Billy has to sift through their lies and omissions before it's too late and the traffic starts to move again. Some of these characters are likeable in spite of their flaws, with the pragmatic, foul-mouthed nurse, Pat, being a highlight for me. Others are immediately more suspicious; some are belligerent, others evasive but should Billy really be looking at those who seem only too keen to help?
It's an intriguing premise and despite the limitations Jo Furniss sets by having most of the action take place within a confined, static area, Dead Mile is a compelling, twisty read. The tension is heightened by the pressure of time, as well as by events elsewhere which induces a nervous sense of unpredictable energy into proceedings. This is a tautly plotted, gripping and often witty murder mystery, with a particularly engaging, sympathetically realised central character in Billy Kidd; I'd love to see more of her in the future. Unlike the unfortunate drivers caught up in the traffic jam, I raced through Dead Mile and highly recommend it.
Dead Mile is published by Zaffre Books. It can be purchased from bookshop.org, Hive, Waterstones, Amazon, Kobo or your favourite independent bookshop.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
Jo also writes for the Short History Of podcast from Noiser. She has worked for numerous online outlets and magazines, including the UN, Monocle and the Economist, and has edited books for a Nobel laureate and the palace of the Sultan of Brunei. She has a Distinction in MA Professional Writing from Falmouth University.
Jo’s debut novel, All the Little Children, was an Amazon Charts bestseller.
Comments
Post a Comment