Striking Murder

Lancashire Detective #2

by A.J. Wright

1893. Wigan is in the grip of a devastating national miners' strike and a harsh winter. Arthur Morris, a wealthy colliery owner whose intransigence on miners' pay is the main cause of the strike, is found brutally murdered in Scholes, a rough working-class district where he is universally hated and blamed for the grinding hardship the strike is causing. Detective Sergeant Brennan is tasked with finding the murderer and when a mysterious stranger is found bludgeoned to death, Brennan starts to unravel a twisted thread of interwoven clues that will lead to the murderer.

Genres: Crime, Historical Fiction, Mystery

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 21, 2016

About the author

Aka Alan Wright

In 2009 A. J. Wright won the 2010 Dundee International Fiction Prize for his Victorian murder mystery Act of Murder. His writing is inspired by his two major interests: all things Victorian and classic works from the Golden Age of crime fiction. He lives near Wigan.

Reviews

[Geraldine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars seems mean but the guidance is 'it was okay', and that's how I feel about this book.

Lots of good stuff in it but, to be honest, it isn't for me.

I was attracted to the geographical setting. My sister lives in the Borough of Wigan, which has long given up its mining industry but still has resonance for her family - for example, the nephew in particular is a big supporter/activist with a local non-League side called Atherton Collieries.

In the end, it didn't work for me because I found the pace really quite plodding, I didn't feel that any of the characters were that richly drawn. And although the police procedural was methodical, and the murder just about plausible, it seemed contrived. Furthermore, there was so little foreshadowing that the 'twist' just seemed inserted in. I also feel it could have benefitted from an additional read through - a little bit too much of trite phrases such as 'shocked to the core' and repeating adjectives - two people in one paragraph giving a curt smile and a curt nod.

I thought that it gave a good sense of place, although I don't pretend to be intimate with the area portrayed. I thought the writer was very sensitive to the issues that caused this miners strike - or lockout - in 1893, and of the big divide between the miners and millworkers, and the mineowners and local Conservative MP (before the days when workers were allowed to vote!). He used the weather well, and I liked that both the main detective and a key character/suspect were of Irish ethnicity, an important part of industrial Lancashire.

I'm going to recommend this to my sister and family, because I think they'll get more out of it than I did, and it's obviously not a bad book, giving it has been nominated for a CWA dagger.

If the subject matter interests you, don't let me put you off - I might simply have not been in the mood for it - but if you're looking for psychologically intricate crime novels, this probably isn't for you.

[Linda Brue · Rating 5 out of 5]

STRIKING MURDER, A.J. Wright, 2016
Taking place in the town of Wigan in 1893, it is winter, and an unusually harsh one at that. The people here are poor, but when the story begins, the people have been completely devastated by a coal miners' strike that has left them without food for their families; they are desperate. Arthur Morris owns the largest mine in town, and his arrogance in deciding that all the miners must take a 25 percent cut in pay so he can get richer, and organizing all the other mine owners to follow suit, is what has caused the strike, and his belligerence in dealing with the workers (he considers the workers pay packets "charity") is what has kept it going for so long. So when he is found dead in an alleyway in the working-class area of Scholes, there are no shortage of suspects; everyone hated him. DS Brennan has drawn the lot of investigating his murder, and when another murder follows, he has to follow a very twisted line of clues to solve it.

Wright has written a tightly plotted story. His characters are real, and he brings to life the desolate life the miners live in the smoke and coal dust. As I was reading, I really felt the desperation, fear, and hunger, not to mention the cold that comes through every wall in their hovels. This is book 1 of 4 in the Lancashire Detective series, and I will definitely be reading the others.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in Wigan in late-1893 during a crippling strike/lockout, this is a pretty good murder mystery particularly for the setting and the social history more-so than the occasionally slow investigation into the killing of wealthy mine owner, Arthur Morris, in a poor part of town. Sergeant Brennan and Constable Jaggery break down a few alibis, mainly to do with Morris’ family with his son, Andrew, and Andrew’s new love from the wrong side of the tracks complicating matters as the dogged Brennan comes closer to the truth. Not the best in the series but still an easy read.

[peter david mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mysterious death with many suspects

The death of an unpopular mine owner in a part of Wigan where the miners lived who hated him for causing great hardship in a current strike, had plenty of suspects. Sergeant Brennan gradually pieces together disparate threads to get to the culprit. Excellent plotting and a five star read.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this one, if I'm honest. Even when I could see how each part was linked and how they fit together to make the story, it still felt disjointed and that none of the parts linked together. It was clever and I didn't guess the murderer, but it became a bit more of a chore than I had hoped. I only finished it so I could find out who committed the crime.

[Voirrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a real hard-to-put down read set in a really gritty time and place - a miners' strike in Wigan in the late nineteenth century.

I really like the detective sergeant coping with the, typical of the period, chief constable who expects his gentry friends to be treated with kid gloves!

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been shortlisted for the 2016 Crime Writers' Association Historical Dagger, which gives you an idea of the quality of the writing. It is a perfect gem of a crime novel - brilliantly-plotted, very well-written and evokes late-Victorian Wigan and the devastating effects of the first ever national coal-miners' strike convincingly and absorbingly. If you enjoy crime novels with a historical setting, give this one a try.

[Sara Eames · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was slow to start but built up into an excellent murder story. The characters were well-written and the plot, once it got going, moved at a steady pace. The historical factors seemed reasonable and the setting was believable. On the whole, not a bad read and one I would recommend to those who enjoy a slow build up to a dramatic finale.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very evocative book.