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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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The Cyclist (The DS Cross Mysteries #2), by Tim Sullivan

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The Cyclist by Tim Sullivan By the second DS Cross mystery, Sullivan can get on with the case rather than introducing the series from scratch. A body found at a demolition site draws George Cross into amateur cycling and performance-enhancing drugs. The setting gives the investigation an identity of its own, while the now-familiar team lets the story move into the case sooner than ‘ The Dentist ’ ( Review ) did. Cross remains the series’ centre. He is autistic, and Sullivan lets that shape both his investigative method and exchanges with others. His attention to detail and literal communication give him a distinctive point of view, while his social interactions add human texture to the procedural. It matters to see an autistic detective at the centre of a crime series; representation makes a difference. The pacing still wavers. Some sections move briskly; others lose momentum, so the mystery is not equally compelling throughout. The slower passages do not make the plot confusing, but ...
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The Dentist (The DS Cross Mysteries #1), by Tim Sullivan

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The Dentist by Tim Sullivan My rating: Four out of five stars I have mixed feelings about “The Dentist”. The mystery brings together a fatal accident from long ago, an unsolved murder, and a new killing in the present. With those events connected, some movement between past and present is inevitable. I expected the investigation to circle back and reconsider earlier events. Even so, the retrospective passages sometimes feel longer than they need to be, and the case takes a while to gather pace. I was interested in the pieces, but not always eager to find out what came next. What kept me engaged was DS George Cross. He is on the autism spectrum, in the area once labelled Asperger syndrome, and I felt a real affinity with him. His interactions felt plausible to me. He is not simply eccentric for effect; the effort of navigating the expectations of others is part of his everyday life. When he asks, » Why should a lie have a colour? «, the literal question is funny, but it also captures a...
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Broder, von Dörte Hansen

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Broder von Dörte Hansen Meine Bewertung: Vier von fünf Sternen Schon mit den ersten Seiten fühlte ich mich in „Broder“ zuhause. Dörte Hansen nimmt einen überschaubaren Ort und macht daraus einen Mikrokosmos, in dem Familie, Arbeit, Tiere und Veränderung ineinandergreifen. Der Hof folgt einem alten Gesetz: Der Sohn, der bleibt, zählt; die anderen sollen sich einfügen oder verschwinden. Hansen erzählt von dieser Härte ohne Pathos und verklärt die Vergangenheit nicht. Broder Bahnsen wollte Bauer werden, doch der Hof ging an seinen Zwillingsbruder Henning. Er wurde Tierarzt, hielt Abstand und kehrte nach Jahren in die Nähe der Familie zurück. Nun steht er zwischen seinem Gespür für Tiere, alter Kränkung und neuer Verantwortung. Mit James Herriot verbindet ihn höchstens der Tierarztberuf; Hansen verortet ihn in einer viel späteren, technisierten Landwirtschaft. Der Hof ist dabei mehr als Kulisse: Seine auf maximale Milchleistung ausgerichtete Herde macht den Wachstumsglauben greifbar. Hans...
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