I'm pretty sure I wrote a review when I read this, but it seems to be gone. I don't remember it well enough now, so I guess I'll have to reread the series and write a new one. Good excuse to reread more Mick Herron. ( )

Some great lines and a strange story line. ( )

'Smoke and Whispers' is another of Mick Herron's mysteries starring Sarah Tucker and the intrepid PI Zoe Boehm. I was at a bit of a disadvantage in getting into it as I hadn't read a previous novel that introduced the 'bad guy', but there was enough in the narrative that I could make sense of the story.

The plot was an odd one. Sarah, who's just a normal everyday Brit (not a cop, in other words), is asked to travel to Newcastle to identify a body found floating in a river that is assumed, due to the identification found on it, to be that of her friend, Zoe. Since the body had been in the water for awhile, Sarah couldn't make a positive ID in her own mind, although she did tell the police that it was Zoe. However, the presence of a leather jacket that was taken previously from Zoe by an alleged serial killer was enough to sew doubt in her mind and to cause her to begin her own 'investigation'. She sets up camp at the rather derelict hotel that Zoe had stayed in prior to her assumed demise and the fun begins.

Gerard Inchon, an over-the-top figure introduced in the initial book in this series, becomes an omnipresent character whose involvement in whatever led to Zoe or her lookalike's death is hinted at but not clarified until late. The aforementioned serial killer, assumed by Sarah to be the key to uncovering the truth, makes appearance throughout, or does he? Add a few other gangsters, business guys, cops, and assorted ne'er-do-wells to the mix and you have quite a challenge for Sarah to conduct her own unofficial investigation.

Herron's a really proficient writer, but I'm not sure this series is a great use of his talents. Neither Sarah nor Zoe are 'traditional' characters in this genre, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but can put some limitations on their abilities. I also have a bit of a problem with the dialogue, which too often sounds almost too perfect, with a character having the perfect response or a couple characters having back and forth conversation that seems scripted. Not a huge problem, since the rest of Herron's writing is so good.

'Smoke and Whispers' is an unusual take on a missing person theme that readers, especially those fond of great Brit writing, will appreciate. ( )

Sarah goes to Newcastle to identify Zoe's body, which has been pulled from the Tyne. She stays at the same hotel as Zoe did and there encounters Gerard (from the first book). Sarah suspects that Alan Talmadge (from the second book) killed Zoe.

I enjoyed this very much until the last quarter or so. I find Sarah a more engaging protagonist than Zoe and her encounters with Gerard were very entertaining. That whole storyline: the cinema, Barry the barman, the scene with Ivy etc was excellent. Sadly the story of what happened to Zoe was only tangentially connected to this first storyline and seemed almost like a separate episode. The resolution to this element was satisfactory in terms of logic, but morally troubling to me. ( )