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The Hunter (The DS Cross Mysteries #6.5), by Tim Sullivan

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The Hunter by Tim Sullivan Four stars out of five. “The Hunter”, Tim Sullivan’s Christmas story, gives George Cross two problems: a murder in a frosted hedgerow and what to buy his mother. At the centre is Cross’s clockwork approach to routine, which brings a familiar mix of precision and gentle humour. One small domestic observation captures his perspective: »This didn’t make a lot of sense to Cross who saw a lot of sense in eating the same thing as often as possible.« It is a lovely reminder that what seems obvious to someone else may not be obvious to him. Sullivan never makes Cross merely eccentric for effect; his way of seeing the world shapes the humour and the investigation alike. The Christmas thread gives the case warmth, while the murder remains central. I enjoyed returning to Cross and watching his methodical habits at work. My only reservation is length: the story ends just as I wanted more time with him and the characters around him. It is a pleasant visit, and I would g...
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The Teacher (The DS Cross Mysteries #6), by Tim Sullivan

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The Teacher by Tim Sullivan Five stars out of five. “The Teacher”, Tim Sullivan’s sixth George Cross novel, opens with an elderly schoolteacher’s death and an account of events that does not quite fit. The mystery’s pleasure lies in the small discrepancies that remain after everyone else thinks they have an answer. That is precisely the territory in which Cross excels. Cross’s clockwork precision is the book’s chief pleasure. His attachment to routine is stated plainly: »He liked regularity in his life. It removed unpredictability.« His routines are not simply a source of comfort; they train his attention to disruptions that others overlook. On a case, a break in routine is not noise to ignore but a signal to examine. Sullivan makes Cross’s autism part of the way he sees and orders information, without turning it into a magic power. He returns to records, tests assumptions, and follows a line of thought to its end. Even after the apparent case has narrowed, he has »systematically and...
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The Monk (The DS Cross Mysteries #5), by Tim Sullivan

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The Monk by Tim Sullivan Five stars out of five, and a clear favourite. “The Monk” brings together two unanswered questions: who was Brother Dominic, a murdered monk whose past is unknown to the police, and what will George Cross make of his mother’s unexpected return? With no leads, the detectives must establish who Dominic was before they can make sense of the killing. Cross, meanwhile, has to revisit the question he has carried since childhood: why did his mother leave? I liked the quiet parallel between the two threads: the investigation reconstructs a stranger’s history, while Cross tries to understand a gap in his own. Cross remains the series’ centre, precise in his reasoning but less at ease with the social assumptions other people take for granted. When Ottey says a man was trying to ease the tension, Cross replies, » Then he might have been better suited to a career as a masseur «. Ottey laughs, and Cross looks surprised. The joke lands without making him its target; Sulliva...
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The Ex-Wife (The DS Cross Mysteries #4.5), by Tim Sullivan

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The Ex-Wife by Tim Sullivan Read my Goodreads review The premise suits George Cross: a conviction seems settled, but one detail keeps him wondering whether a second death was missed. That gives this cold-case novella a neat hook, and the brisk opening wastes little time. Yet at twenty-eight pages, “The Ex-Wife” feels less like a compact mystery than a synopsis of a fuller one. Interviews and clues arrive before they can gather much weight, leaving little space for the investigation, Cross’s colleagues, or the victims to develop. The moral emphasis is harder to accept. The narrator’s insistence that » Everyone from the press to the prosecution was rightly appalled « sets the tone, and the story repeatedly underlines the injustice of the earlier failure. The concern is understandable, but the writing feels preachy: it announces its judgement instead of trusting the case to make it. There is a good Cross mystery here, but not enough story around it. I finished wanting more room, sharper ...
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The Politician (The DS Cross Mysteries #4), by Tim Sullivan

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The Politician by Tim Sullivan Five stars out of five, and a favourite. The fourth DS Cross novel gives Tim Sullivan a familiar detective and a case with a fresh public face. Former mayor Peggy Frampton is found dead after what appears to be a burglary. Her polarising public profile, the online abuse directed at her, and the complicated people around her create a broad field of possible motives. The political backdrop feels current, but the case stays rooted in people and evidence. George Cross remains the series’ centre. His autism shapes how he parses evidence and how literally he handles conversation. One exchange catches both his precision and the comic friction it can create: »You do not have vertigo, I assure you.« The correction is entirely sincere; the other person’s exasperation is part of the joke. Sullivan makes the humour emerge from the mismatch between exactness and social tact, never from asking us to laugh at Cross. The awkwardness is real, but it never cancels the use...
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The Lost Boys (The DS Cross Mysteries #3.5), by Tim Sullivan

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The Lost Boys by Tim Sullivan My rating: Four out of five stars Tim Sullivan turns a simple accusation into something unsettling. At a care home, a new resident points to Arthur Turnbull, an elderly man with advanced dementia: “That’s the man who killed my father.” The question is not simply whether he is right. Cross must discover what can be trusted when memory has faded, the crime is decades old, and those involved have lived with its consequences. I liked the compassion with which Sullivan handles this premise, alongside the quiet precision of a police procedural. Arthur is never just a puzzle to solve; his vulnerability gives the investigation emotional weight. Cross’s methodical attention to detail drives the case, while his humanity comes through in the way he treats the people caught up in it. My only reservation is the length. This is satisfying, affecting detective fiction, but it ends before I am ready to leave Cross and the people around him. Had it been longer, it would ...
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The Patient (The DS Cross Mysteries #3), by Tim Sullivan

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The Patient: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan My rating: Five stars out of five I thoroughly enjoyed “ The Patient ”. As the third DS Cross mystery, it benefits from a world that already feels lived in. The central investigation is simple to grasp: a young woman’s death has been treated as an overdose, while her mother insists that the conclusion is wrong. Sullivan gives that conflict an immediate emotional weight, then lets the case unfold with patience and clarity. The result is calm in manner, but not placid: its steady movement kept drawing me forward. George Cross remains the book’s great strength. His autism is not reduced to a collection of quirks. Rather, it shapes how he notices evidence, interprets language, and deals with the unspoken rules of police work. His bluntness can be awkward, his reasoning can be startlingly literal, and the people around him sometimes have to decide what he means before reacting. Yet Sullivan gives that difference room to be funny, pract...
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