This is probably not really a four-star book. As crime fiction goes, it's fairly bog-standard, albeit with a protagonist different to most I'm used to (at times, I could practically feel the testosterone wafting out of the pages). But it got me. It well and truly got me - I did not see the ending coming, and while it seems completely obvious in retrospect, it makes sense of a lot of my early niggles with the book, and in a few years time might even bear a repeat reading. For easily two-thirds of the book I'd written it off as 'decent-ish, but probably wouldn't bother with another'. But that feeling of having the rug pulled out from under me is rather marvellous, and if Mr. Billingham is as clever as I hope he is (easier to hope he's clever than wonder if I'm getting more dim-witted) then I'll more than likely try another should I come across one. Hurrah.