The Soho Murder (Blitz Detective)
December 1940, and Detective Inspector John Jago is called to investigate a shooting in London’s Soho area, long associated with troublemakers, gangsters and crime. The victim is a small-time bookseller who seemed to collect more than he sold. After a heavy night of German bombing, Jago – with fresh-faced Detective Constable Cradock – goes to inform the victim’s wife, another bookseller… but sitting in the ruin of her family firm near St. Paul’s cathedral. Now the digging starts for the police.
Jago, more at home in West Ham, recalls being a copper in Soho and has some appreciation of the district. Poor, run-down, home to the disaffected, the struggling, prey to criminals and con artists, Soho stood as a claustrophobic melting pot of nationality, politics, and honesty. So why did Samuel Bellamy end up with a single bullet in his chest? Jago and Cradock’s investigation involves digging into the victim’s friends, family, and the industry of bookselling, buying, auctions, rings, and forgery.
Hollow’s book is a London police procedural during the days of the Blitz. People forget that while the international war created death, tragedy, and crime in the news, the more prosaic and ‘small’ crime carried on in civilian life. Profiteers and gangs were not patriotic but did what they always did – exploit a situation and profit from chaos. Hollow lays out a routine investigation which, as always, unearths secrets. There are petty and grand crimes going on, as side issues, but his detectives push on to find the killer of Bellamy and give closure to his wife. Ninth in a series.
