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DI Nick Lowry #1
Blackwater
January 1983, Colchester CID
A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result, the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's reckless driving.
If Detective Constable Daniel Kenton's orange sports convertible is symbolic of his fast track through the ranks, then his accompanying swagger, foppish hairstyle and university education only augment his uniqueness in the department. Yet regardless of this, it is not DC Kenton who is turning station heads.
WPC Jane Gabriel is the newest police recruit in Britain's oldest recorded town. Despite a familial tie to top brass, Gabriel's striking beauty and profound youth have landed her with two obstacles: a young male colleague who gives her too much attention, and an older one who acts like she's not there.
January 1983, Blackwater Estuary
A new year brings a new danger to the Essex shoreline. An illicit shipment, bound for Colchester - 100 kilograms of powder that will frantically accelerate tensions in the historic town, and leave its own murderous trace.
Lowry, Kenton and Gabriel must now develop a tolerance to one another, and show their own substance, to save Britain's oldest settlement from a new, unsettling enemy.
485 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2016
40 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
James Henry
216 books69 followersJames Henry is the pen name for James Gurbutt. James is a publisher at Constable & Robinson, R.D. Wingfield’s original publisher back in the 1980s. Philip Wingfield, son of the late R. D. Wingfield approves; he remarked, 'The author has captured my father's style superbly. Fans and newcomers alike will not be disappointed.' That’s a good sign but how did they go about it? And just like Talking Heads, we set them up and here is the result.
Note: There are multiple authors with this name. This author has one space.
James^Henry
Note: There are multiple authors with this name. This author has one space.
James^Henry
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
February 16, 2017
Blackwater (DI Nick Lowry, #1) was a three star read for me, and only just.
I was excited to be approved for this book for many reasons. I love English Police Procedurals - they tend to be very atmospheric and evocative of whatever era they are set. Fail #1. This book lacked atmosphere. Even the language used in places was years out of date.
The characters are usually earthy, gritty and realistic. Fail #2. I could not feel any connection with any of the characters, irritation - yes, frustrations - yes, connection, no.
The plot is usually taut and tense and interspersed with a little of their private lives as light relief. Fail #3. By the end I didn't give a damn about Nick's (or any other characters for that matter) private life. I was fed up with his bubble-brained wife and their constant neglect of their child. There was no tension (plotwise), just in my shoulders as I got more and more frustrated the more I read. The only sigh of relief I gave was when I turned the final (virtual) page.
The only reason I didn't rate Blackwater 2.5 stars, is that every now and then a glimmer or really good writing shone through. Not enough to make me want to read any more of this series though.
Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing a digital ARC of Blackwater by James Henry for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
I was excited to be approved for this book for many reasons. I love English Police Procedurals - they tend to be very atmospheric and evocative of whatever era they are set. Fail #1. This book lacked atmosphere. Even the language used in places was years out of date.
The characters are usually earthy, gritty and realistic. Fail #2. I could not feel any connection with any of the characters, irritation - yes, frustrations - yes, connection, no.
The plot is usually taut and tense and interspersed with a little of their private lives as light relief. Fail #3. By the end I didn't give a damn about Nick's (or any other characters for that matter) private life. I was fed up with his bubble-brained wife and their constant neglect of their child. There was no tension (plotwise), just in my shoulders as I got more and more frustrated the more I read. The only sigh of relief I gave was when I turned the final (virtual) page.
The only reason I didn't rate Blackwater 2.5 stars, is that every now and then a glimmer or really good writing shone through. Not enough to make me want to read any more of this series though.
Thank you to NetGalley and Quercus Books for providing a digital ARC of Blackwater by James Henry for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
June 27, 2016
This is a atmospheric police procedural set in Essex with Colchester CID in 1983. It captures much of the way policing was done in the time with a hint of the changes to come. There are exceedingly sexist overtones and a police chief whose view of orthnithology, which DI Nick Lowry takes up, is that it is 'gay'. Stephen Sparkes, the police chief, is feeling embattled and under pressure as his boss thinks that he is not modern enough. This pushes Sparkes to take more of a hands on approach to the cases his department are investigating. I was enamoured with DI Nick Lowry as a man who is completely committed to his job and is very good at it. He and his wife, Jacqui, are experiencing problems in their marriage, and her shenanigans impact the case and put Nick under a lot of pressure. Nick is particularly good with his team which includes DC Kenton and WPC Gabriel who work the various investigations.
It begins with the discovery of a headless body in Mersea that appears to be a road traffic accident, although it turns out nothing is as it seems. The death of a soldier and serious injuries to another are presumed to be as a result of locals chasing them is being looked into. The suspects arrested for an armed robbery at a Mersea Post Office turn out to be innocent as other evidence emerges. Two dead bodies are discovered in a squat on an estate which appears to be the result of a drug deal gone wrong. With the rise in drug smuggling and drug use in the area, Lowry's team are under pressure to get results. All the investigations turn out to be connected. Members of the armed forces are implicated creating a headache for the police. With twists and suspense, the resolution comes as a surprise.
This is a well plotted story which successfully carries the ambience of the 1980s. The central character, Nick, is well developed and someone you want to know about. I found it an absorbing and entertaining read. It's the first of a series and I look forward to the next one. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.
It begins with the discovery of a headless body in Mersea that appears to be a road traffic accident, although it turns out nothing is as it seems. The death of a soldier and serious injuries to another are presumed to be as a result of locals chasing them is being looked into. The suspects arrested for an armed robbery at a Mersea Post Office turn out to be innocent as other evidence emerges. Two dead bodies are discovered in a squat on an estate which appears to be the result of a drug deal gone wrong. With the rise in drug smuggling and drug use in the area, Lowry's team are under pressure to get results. All the investigations turn out to be connected. Members of the armed forces are implicated creating a headache for the police. With twists and suspense, the resolution comes as a surprise.
This is a well plotted story which successfully carries the ambience of the 1980s. The central character, Nick, is well developed and someone you want to know about. I found it an absorbing and entertaining read. It's the first of a series and I look forward to the next one. Many thanks to Quercus for an ARC.
July 30, 2018
Review of Blackwater
Intro
This is the first book I have read by James Henry. I didn’t know his history so I assumed he was a local man writing about Colchester because he knew it well. Having just checked him out online, I found that James Gurbutt (his real name) was born in Essex but there is precious little about him and it does not say whether he still lives in Essex or not – I suspect not. It also says that in respect of the Inspector Frost prequels he wrote, they were a collaboration with another author and Associate Creative Writing Tutor at the University of East Anglia, Henry Sutton, and that James Henry is their combined pen name. Mr Sutton is not mentioned in the credits for Blackwater, so I assume Mr Gurbutt is now using the name James Henry on his own.
The whinge
Firstly, I must state that I really enjoyed this crime novel, which is set in January 1983, and I will, no doubt, read it again in the future and probably buy more books from this author, so please don’t think that I am being disingenuous when I nit-pick!
I’ll get the nit-picking out of the way now so that we can move forward. The only reason I have to do so is that I am from the Colchester area and picked up on some very basic geographical and factual errors that could have been avoided with a small amount of research on the author’s part. For example, he frequently mentions the local hospital because one of the main characters in the story works there as a nurse. He correctly states that the hospital is in Lexden Road but calls it Colchester General Hospital. This is incorrect because Colchester District General Hospital did not open until 1984 and is on the other side of town, so he should have given the one he is referring to its correct name of Essex County Hospital – after all, it’s been there since 1820! This would not have been difficult to establish. The other ‘errors’ are those of local geography that I will not bore you with and could, in fact, be considered ‘artistic licence’ in the interests of the story. He did, however, get the location of the police station right – phew!
The other thing that puzzled me concerns the map. At the front of the book, there is a map of Colchester and the surrounding towns and villages, which is a good thing because it helps you to follow the action. The weird thing is, however, that the map must be from the late 1920s because so much of Colchester and surrounding districts is missing and Cowdray Avenue is shown in white, which suggests to me that it only a proposed road (it was opened in 1933). I can only imagine he used an old map to save having to pay a fee associated with copyright on a modern one. Okay, rant over!
The review
Still with me? Well done for getting through that point of local interest. The story is a good one, especially so for those of us who were around in 1983 and remember the big hair, shell suits and (almost) no mobile phones, which looked like and weighed as much as house bricks and cost about £2,500, which was a lot of money in those days – as a point of reference, a Ford Escort RS1600i cost £6,700 in 1983.
This is the first of a series of crime novels depicting an Essex Police (based in Colchester) hero, Detective Inspector Nick Lowry; his ‘assistant', Detective Constable Daniel Kenton and, introduced quite early on, Woman Police Constable Jane Gabriel, a uniformed officer who lends them a hand but I think will become a regular in the series. I think Jane will also probably be a strong female character using her brains (and trying to downplay her beauty) to show the chauvinistic men a thing or two.
Some of the characters are dinosaurs by today’s standards. 1983 not being that long after the 70s, Britain was a place where every garage workshop had pictures of topless women on the wall and many men thought of women in the workplace only as secretaries or nurses. The police were just beginning to have to get to grips with a ‘new’ system of real accountability for their actions, so ‘fitting up’ a known villain for an offence they could not solve was becoming difficult without evidence – and prisoners were being extended additional rights to help prevent miscarriages of justice. DI Lowry’s boss, Chief Superintendent Stephen Sparks, is a prime example of a dinosaur. He runs Colchester Division and is a shouty, ordering people about type of senior officer – not a man-manager at all. This is also a police station where the cops quite often have a bottle of whisky in their desk drawers, á la Sweeney. At first, Lowry comes across as chauvinistic but his attitude changes during the story, so I think he will turn out okay. DC Kenton is already of a different ilk, being younger, embracing the changes and driving them forward. His bosses dislike his 1980s ‘floppy hair’ and dress sense but I have a feeling they will regret that attitude later on in the series.
I am not going to give the game away but the story is multi-layered, involving a drug deal, the death of a soldier (Colchester has been a garrison town since the Romans), police relations with the army, a headless corpse, old v new policing (as well as old v even older policing on Mersea Island), infidelity, marital problems, personal angst and boxing! Another of the main characters is the landscape/seascape – the mudflats and waterways of the beautiful (but not in a quaint way in January) Essex coastline, the descriptions of which are evocative of Charles Dickens’ south Essex marshes in Great Expectations.
James Henry has done a good job of weaving a story that is a pleasure to read, keeps you guessing and which, while ultimately satisfyingly neat and tidy, has an outcome that is not easy to predict – for me anyway!
Four stars.
Intro
This is the first book I have read by James Henry. I didn’t know his history so I assumed he was a local man writing about Colchester because he knew it well. Having just checked him out online, I found that James Gurbutt (his real name) was born in Essex but there is precious little about him and it does not say whether he still lives in Essex or not – I suspect not. It also says that in respect of the Inspector Frost prequels he wrote, they were a collaboration with another author and Associate Creative Writing Tutor at the University of East Anglia, Henry Sutton, and that James Henry is their combined pen name. Mr Sutton is not mentioned in the credits for Blackwater, so I assume Mr Gurbutt is now using the name James Henry on his own.
The whinge
Firstly, I must state that I really enjoyed this crime novel, which is set in January 1983, and I will, no doubt, read it again in the future and probably buy more books from this author, so please don’t think that I am being disingenuous when I nit-pick!
I’ll get the nit-picking out of the way now so that we can move forward. The only reason I have to do so is that I am from the Colchester area and picked up on some very basic geographical and factual errors that could have been avoided with a small amount of research on the author’s part. For example, he frequently mentions the local hospital because one of the main characters in the story works there as a nurse. He correctly states that the hospital is in Lexden Road but calls it Colchester General Hospital. This is incorrect because Colchester District General Hospital did not open until 1984 and is on the other side of town, so he should have given the one he is referring to its correct name of Essex County Hospital – after all, it’s been there since 1820! This would not have been difficult to establish. The other ‘errors’ are those of local geography that I will not bore you with and could, in fact, be considered ‘artistic licence’ in the interests of the story. He did, however, get the location of the police station right – phew!
The other thing that puzzled me concerns the map. At the front of the book, there is a map of Colchester and the surrounding towns and villages, which is a good thing because it helps you to follow the action. The weird thing is, however, that the map must be from the late 1920s because so much of Colchester and surrounding districts is missing and Cowdray Avenue is shown in white, which suggests to me that it only a proposed road (it was opened in 1933). I can only imagine he used an old map to save having to pay a fee associated with copyright on a modern one. Okay, rant over!
The review
Still with me? Well done for getting through that point of local interest. The story is a good one, especially so for those of us who were around in 1983 and remember the big hair, shell suits and (almost) no mobile phones, which looked like and weighed as much as house bricks and cost about £2,500, which was a lot of money in those days – as a point of reference, a Ford Escort RS1600i cost £6,700 in 1983.
This is the first of a series of crime novels depicting an Essex Police (based in Colchester) hero, Detective Inspector Nick Lowry; his ‘assistant', Detective Constable Daniel Kenton and, introduced quite early on, Woman Police Constable Jane Gabriel, a uniformed officer who lends them a hand but I think will become a regular in the series. I think Jane will also probably be a strong female character using her brains (and trying to downplay her beauty) to show the chauvinistic men a thing or two.
Some of the characters are dinosaurs by today’s standards. 1983 not being that long after the 70s, Britain was a place where every garage workshop had pictures of topless women on the wall and many men thought of women in the workplace only as secretaries or nurses. The police were just beginning to have to get to grips with a ‘new’ system of real accountability for their actions, so ‘fitting up’ a known villain for an offence they could not solve was becoming difficult without evidence – and prisoners were being extended additional rights to help prevent miscarriages of justice. DI Lowry’s boss, Chief Superintendent Stephen Sparks, is a prime example of a dinosaur. He runs Colchester Division and is a shouty, ordering people about type of senior officer – not a man-manager at all. This is also a police station where the cops quite often have a bottle of whisky in their desk drawers, á la Sweeney. At first, Lowry comes across as chauvinistic but his attitude changes during the story, so I think he will turn out okay. DC Kenton is already of a different ilk, being younger, embracing the changes and driving them forward. His bosses dislike his 1980s ‘floppy hair’ and dress sense but I have a feeling they will regret that attitude later on in the series.
I am not going to give the game away but the story is multi-layered, involving a drug deal, the death of a soldier (Colchester has been a garrison town since the Romans), police relations with the army, a headless corpse, old v new policing (as well as old v even older policing on Mersea Island), infidelity, marital problems, personal angst and boxing! Another of the main characters is the landscape/seascape – the mudflats and waterways of the beautiful (but not in a quaint way in January) Essex coastline, the descriptions of which are evocative of Charles Dickens’ south Essex marshes in Great Expectations.
James Henry has done a good job of weaving a story that is a pleasure to read, keeps you guessing and which, while ultimately satisfyingly neat and tidy, has an outcome that is not easy to predict – for me anyway!
Four stars.
July 19, 2016
I received a copy of this book from Real Readers in an exchange for an honest review.
I quite enjoyed this first book in a new detective series set in 1980s Essex. As it's not a part of England I'm at all familiar with so I found it interesting to read about a new place. I really enjoyed the 80s era that it was set in particularly the references to the fashions and music. The rivalry between the police force and the army made an intriguing background and it will interesting to see how this develops in the series. I didn't feel that I got to know the main characters very well although I can see that they could grow on me in more books. I found the the plot quite confusing as there were lots of names to remember which dragged in out too much. I do prefer a faster pace in a book so although the chapters were short it didn't feel like the story was more on quick enough for me. It felt more of a read for men as the women were almost token characters, but then again it was set in the 80s. I wouldn't rush out and buy the next in the series but I would borrow it from my local library.
I quite enjoyed this first book in a new detective series set in 1980s Essex. As it's not a part of England I'm at all familiar with so I found it interesting to read about a new place. I really enjoyed the 80s era that it was set in particularly the references to the fashions and music. The rivalry between the police force and the army made an intriguing background and it will interesting to see how this develops in the series. I didn't feel that I got to know the main characters very well although I can see that they could grow on me in more books. I found the the plot quite confusing as there were lots of names to remember which dragged in out too much. I do prefer a faster pace in a book so although the chapters were short it didn't feel like the story was more on quick enough for me. It felt more of a read for men as the women were almost token characters, but then again it was set in the 80s. I wouldn't rush out and buy the next in the series but I would borrow it from my local library.
July 15, 2016
I was given a hardback copy of this book by the publisher and Realreaders.
Prepare yourselves - there's a new Inspector on the loose, albeit one from the early 1980's. There are some very murky goings on indeed in Colchester and the mudflats on the Essex coast. Enter Nick Lowry who has to solve the murder mystery and the drug problem, not to mention the state of his marriage to a rather flighty Jacqui. He has two sidekicks to help him with the police work, WPC Jane Gabriel and DC Dan Kenton. A great atmospheric start on a dark, foggy night on the mudflats. I loved all the descriptions of the various places but found it a bit difficult to settle into policing in the 1980's - it seemed like an awful lot of hard work crime solving then! It also took a bit of time to get used to jumping around to the different locations and characters. Lowry & Co will become more interesting as we get to know them better in future books. All in all a very good introduction to a new series, easy to read with some nice characters and some not quite so nice!
Prepare yourselves - there's a new Inspector on the loose, albeit one from the early 1980's. There are some very murky goings on indeed in Colchester and the mudflats on the Essex coast. Enter Nick Lowry who has to solve the murder mystery and the drug problem, not to mention the state of his marriage to a rather flighty Jacqui. He has two sidekicks to help him with the police work, WPC Jane Gabriel and DC Dan Kenton. A great atmospheric start on a dark, foggy night on the mudflats. I loved all the descriptions of the various places but found it a bit difficult to settle into policing in the 1980's - it seemed like an awful lot of hard work crime solving then! It also took a bit of time to get used to jumping around to the different locations and characters. Lowry & Co will become more interesting as we get to know them better in future books. All in all a very good introduction to a new series, easy to read with some nice characters and some not quite so nice!
November 6, 2016
A new year brings a new danger to the Essex shoreline. An illicit shipment, bound for Colchester - 100 kilograms of powder that will frantically accelerate tensions in the historic town, and leave its own murderous trace. Lowry, Kenton and Gabriel must now develop a tolerance to one another, and show their own substance, to save Britain's oldest settlement from a new, unsettling enemy.
To be honest I found this to be far to slow paced for me. I began to get restless and start to skim read passages. I also found the characters to be strangely unemotional – all of them, which had the effect of meaning I found it hard to connect with them and therefore didn’t care much for them. The plot was good, the writing very evocative of the time and the place, but it was missing that certain ‘something’ for me which would turn this good novel into a great one.
I received a review copy of this novel from Netgalley.
To be honest I found this to be far to slow paced for me. I began to get restless and start to skim read passages. I also found the characters to be strangely unemotional – all of them, which had the effect of meaning I found it hard to connect with them and therefore didn’t care much for them. The plot was good, the writing very evocative of the time and the place, but it was missing that certain ‘something’ for me which would turn this good novel into a great one.
I received a review copy of this novel from Netgalley.
March 28, 2016
Well James Henry has worked hard to shake off the shadow of Inspector Jack Frost who he brilliantly recreated in the three prequels he wrote following the demise of their creator R.D. Wingfield. In Blackwater there isn’t a whiff of Jack, although as these books are set in the 80s, the policing isn’t quite what we expect in these more enlightened times. This has the added advantage that the police are far more interested in actual action than meeting targets and getting overly involved in the politics of policing, although the whiff of them is just blowing faintly on the breeze!
Our chief protagonist in the force in Blackwater is Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry, a sympathetic character who is struggling with his approaching fortieth birthday albeit with fortitude. His decision to stop smoking whilst those around him continue with abandon and to give up his position on the Boxing team is giving his boss serious cause for concern. Nick Lowry is married to a nurse, Jacqui, and although he may not fully understand why, his marriage isn’t as healthy as his New Year’s resolution. Conveniently our book covers the time the clock strikes midnight on 31 December 1982 and before too long a headless corpse is discovered on the salt marshes of Blackwater.
Meanwhile we get to hear from some smugglers with a shipment who have lost their way but are determined to start 1983 with the money they were promised but luck isn’t on their side. The discovery of the corpse has delayed them further and without the name of the buyer, it looks like they may have a long wait. Without mobile phones to handily use to pass on messages through the food-chain to explain themselves, life quickly becomes very complicated.
James Henry brilliantly gives us a sense of time period and place. The complexities of Colchester’s CID co-operation with the smaller, and often cut-off West Mersea police force are engagingly recreated for our pleasure. With the larger force at least making a nod towards more progressive policing, West Mersea are very much stuck in another time, where knowing someone is a ne’er-do-well, is reason enough to arrest and charge them for the next available crime. The author gives us some of the much loved products and historical facts to reinforce the time, without going over the top and trading on reader’s nostalgia. The setting helps here too, Colchester is a garrison town and the army features strongly as tensions rise between them and the locals, any patriotic goodwill from winning the Falklands War certainly doesn’t trump the soldiers spending their Christmas leave on using their wages to woo the local ladies.
The plot is complicated and with quite a few characters, including a very promising young female officer, to keep track of this isn’t a book to read if you don’t have plenty of concentration. Fortunately each change of view or place is helpfully signposted by giving the date, time and place, take note dear reader, especially at the beginning or I fear you may get in a terrible muddle! The switches frequent the viewpoint ever changing and with both actual and moral crimes being committed you do want to know what is what. With a steadier hand than our original two smugglers though, James Henry brings this to a fitting conclusion in the very model of a proper police procedural, with the loose ends tied up but leaving one thread to enable him to give us another episode, hopefully in the not too distant future.
I was given a proof copy by the author well ahead of the publication date of 14 July 2016 and I’m afraid I couldn’t wait until nearer this date to sample the goods!!
Our chief protagonist in the force in Blackwater is Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry, a sympathetic character who is struggling with his approaching fortieth birthday albeit with fortitude. His decision to stop smoking whilst those around him continue with abandon and to give up his position on the Boxing team is giving his boss serious cause for concern. Nick Lowry is married to a nurse, Jacqui, and although he may not fully understand why, his marriage isn’t as healthy as his New Year’s resolution. Conveniently our book covers the time the clock strikes midnight on 31 December 1982 and before too long a headless corpse is discovered on the salt marshes of Blackwater.
Meanwhile we get to hear from some smugglers with a shipment who have lost their way but are determined to start 1983 with the money they were promised but luck isn’t on their side. The discovery of the corpse has delayed them further and without the name of the buyer, it looks like they may have a long wait. Without mobile phones to handily use to pass on messages through the food-chain to explain themselves, life quickly becomes very complicated.
James Henry brilliantly gives us a sense of time period and place. The complexities of Colchester’s CID co-operation with the smaller, and often cut-off West Mersea police force are engagingly recreated for our pleasure. With the larger force at least making a nod towards more progressive policing, West Mersea are very much stuck in another time, where knowing someone is a ne’er-do-well, is reason enough to arrest and charge them for the next available crime. The author gives us some of the much loved products and historical facts to reinforce the time, without going over the top and trading on reader’s nostalgia. The setting helps here too, Colchester is a garrison town and the army features strongly as tensions rise between them and the locals, any patriotic goodwill from winning the Falklands War certainly doesn’t trump the soldiers spending their Christmas leave on using their wages to woo the local ladies.
The plot is complicated and with quite a few characters, including a very promising young female officer, to keep track of this isn’t a book to read if you don’t have plenty of concentration. Fortunately each change of view or place is helpfully signposted by giving the date, time and place, take note dear reader, especially at the beginning or I fear you may get in a terrible muddle! The switches frequent the viewpoint ever changing and with both actual and moral crimes being committed you do want to know what is what. With a steadier hand than our original two smugglers though, James Henry brings this to a fitting conclusion in the very model of a proper police procedural, with the loose ends tied up but leaving one thread to enable him to give us another episode, hopefully in the not too distant future.
I was given a proof copy by the author well ahead of the publication date of 14 July 2016 and I’m afraid I couldn’t wait until nearer this date to sample the goods!!
June 15, 2016
DI Nick Lowry has a lot on his plate this New Year. His wife is distant and behaving erratically, he has the death of a soldier from the local barracks, the discovery of a headless corpse on Mersea Island and the murder of two men in a house in Colchester. All the events seem to be linked with the import of a very strong batch of amphetamines from Germany.
I did really like the whole sense of time and place in this book. Set just after the Falklands War in Essex, the references to culture of the 80s were spot on. The descriptions of Mersea Island and the bleak mudflats were extremely evocative and the brutal, sexist nature of policing was realistic. However the story itself never really grabbed me and it took me a while to plough through the book. I don't understand why, the plot was interesting and the setting good but it never grabbed me and left me a little cold.
I did really like the whole sense of time and place in this book. Set just after the Falklands War in Essex, the references to culture of the 80s were spot on. The descriptions of Mersea Island and the bleak mudflats were extremely evocative and the brutal, sexist nature of policing was realistic. However the story itself never really grabbed me and it took me a while to plough through the book. I don't understand why, the plot was interesting and the setting good but it never grabbed me and left me a little cold.
August 3, 2018
Blackwater by James Henry wasn't the normal type of crime novel that grips me. I thought the story, although well-written, was a little tame. An enjoyable read, but I wasn't as gripped as I'd hoped. Cosy crime
July 17, 2016
On receiving this book from Real Reader in return for an honest review, my first feeling was one of pleasure. I like police detective mysteries. Then I saw that it was set in 1983. I was now not so sure. Born as the Second World War ended, I was bringing up three young children in 1983 and remember it well.. Not an era I care to revisit. I soon found that was reminded of small details of 1983 life as if it were some form of historical entertainment, For example, “Kenton was meticulously fitting the cap on what Lowry knew to be an expensive fountain pen, a graduation present”. We are being told how it was in 1983.It’s laborious. It’s clunky. If it were really written in that year, the character would have been said to have put his pen down. At another point we are treated to an explanation of a pea souper fog. Anyone of any age will know what that was. And that is just page sixteen. It just went on and on. .And there was so much drinking and smoking. Practically on every page.
Why was this book set in 1983? The cover blurb tells us that James Henry has written three prequels for R, D. Wingfield’s Frost books. The huge amount of research necessary to do this means that he knows a lot about policing in that era as well as general social background. Is he just using the knowledge gained for his own original characters ? But Wingfield was writing about his present time, his books being first published in this country in the late 80s and early 90s. They were authentic. But perhaps it could well not be the case with this novel. I wanted to be proved wrong so I ploughed on with the reading which for the first half at least was quite a personal struggle.
The main characters are a police superintendent called Sparks, an Inspector Lowry and a detective constable Kenton who has a degree and is probably one of a brand new breed of fast track officers. He owns an open top orange Triumph Spitfire car. There is also a WPC Gabriel who has been a model as well as various other police characters, all a bit cardboard cut out. The action is set in Colchester, a big army garrison town, so the other set of characters are from the army barracks. Drugs, are still a newish phenomenon there on a very large scale. And there are assorted local low life. I found it very difficult to empathise with any of these character who all seemed to conform to some pre conceived stereotype of the time. But I plodded on. So that by the time that I felt that the story had begun to pick up pace about half way through, I wasn’t too sure who was who of the subsidiary characters. My fault for not engaging from the start. Some murders were committed but I found it difficult to sort it all out by this time. The story is described as a thriller on the book cover, which I feel is very misleading, “ The First Nick Lowry Thriller”. Police detection purporting to be from the 80s might be more accurate ,but I guess that wouldn’t fit on the front cover or sell books either. Thriller it ain’t !
I hate criticising any author’s hard work, so I have to say that I loved the atmospheric feel of the novel. I enjoyed the cold dreariness of the Essex estuary setting with its depressing mud flats, unaffected by time or period fashion. Life felt timeless here. To get the full effect of the bleakness, the story had to be set in winter with cold sea mist and short days. If there are to be any further books I wonder if a tale in this setting in summer will be as effective. I hope so. Even the young CID constable has an open top sports car in which he and his inspector, Lowry, drive around freezing, all adding to the greyness of the situation.
For me to have actively disliked so many of the characters, the author must have engaged with me to some extent. I have to ask myself, would I read another of these books. The answer is probably not.
Why was this book set in 1983? The cover blurb tells us that James Henry has written three prequels for R, D. Wingfield’s Frost books. The huge amount of research necessary to do this means that he knows a lot about policing in that era as well as general social background. Is he just using the knowledge gained for his own original characters ? But Wingfield was writing about his present time, his books being first published in this country in the late 80s and early 90s. They were authentic. But perhaps it could well not be the case with this novel. I wanted to be proved wrong so I ploughed on with the reading which for the first half at least was quite a personal struggle.
The main characters are a police superintendent called Sparks, an Inspector Lowry and a detective constable Kenton who has a degree and is probably one of a brand new breed of fast track officers. He owns an open top orange Triumph Spitfire car. There is also a WPC Gabriel who has been a model as well as various other police characters, all a bit cardboard cut out. The action is set in Colchester, a big army garrison town, so the other set of characters are from the army barracks. Drugs, are still a newish phenomenon there on a very large scale. And there are assorted local low life. I found it very difficult to empathise with any of these character who all seemed to conform to some pre conceived stereotype of the time. But I plodded on. So that by the time that I felt that the story had begun to pick up pace about half way through, I wasn’t too sure who was who of the subsidiary characters. My fault for not engaging from the start. Some murders were committed but I found it difficult to sort it all out by this time. The story is described as a thriller on the book cover, which I feel is very misleading, “ The First Nick Lowry Thriller”. Police detection purporting to be from the 80s might be more accurate ,but I guess that wouldn’t fit on the front cover or sell books either. Thriller it ain’t !
I hate criticising any author’s hard work, so I have to say that I loved the atmospheric feel of the novel. I enjoyed the cold dreariness of the Essex estuary setting with its depressing mud flats, unaffected by time or period fashion. Life felt timeless here. To get the full effect of the bleakness, the story had to be set in winter with cold sea mist and short days. If there are to be any further books I wonder if a tale in this setting in summer will be as effective. I hope so. Even the young CID constable has an open top sports car in which he and his inspector, Lowry, drive around freezing, all adding to the greyness of the situation.
For me to have actively disliked so many of the characters, the author must have engaged with me to some extent. I have to ask myself, would I read another of these books. The answer is probably not.
September 11, 2018
I picked this book up from the library was I was queueing for something else for two reasons. Firstly I noticed on the bottom of the front cover that it was the first in the Inspector Nick Lowry series, and I love starting a series at the beginning, and secondly the book is set about forty miles from where I live and an area I know really well through family connections and visits.
Nick Lowry is a policeman working in the main station in Colchester, Essex and as such has a lot of dealings with the large army garrison in the town. Over the Christmas / New Year holiday period two soldiers are being chased around the walls of the Town's castle when one falls and dies. All does not ring true. In the festive celebrations fights break out in the town centre and there is a theory that this is a reprisal for the death of the soldier.
Another detraction for the team is the washing up of a body on the road crossing to one of my favourite places, Mersea Island, which is minus its head.
As the investigation progresses it is evident that there is a drug connection involved. The locality is very interesting for those who know the area and it is very well recreated as it moves between Colcheter, Fingringhoe, Mersea Island, Brightlingsea and Greenstead.
DI Lowry is a good character and good at his job and is well supported by his young assistant DC Daniel Keaton and a young WPC Jane Gabriel on who the jury is still out due to a relationship that is revealed half way through. Lowry's commanding officer, CS Stephen Sparks, is another good character who probably is too hands on for his rank, but this adds to the fun> Sparks has an interesting relationship with the head of the garrison, Brigadear Lane, known as 'The Beard' for his impressive amount of facial hair. A good twist to the normal run of the mill is Lowry's attractive wife, Jacqui, who is having an affair with a young doctor at the hospital where she is a nurse. In fact there relationship is in real trouble not least because Jacqui is rather fond of anything in trousers.
The book is well paced, not badly written and pretty enjoyable if not earth shattering. I'd recommend the book and I'm certainly on the look out for episode 2 of the DI Nick Lowry series.
Nick Lowry is a policeman working in the main station in Colchester, Essex and as such has a lot of dealings with the large army garrison in the town. Over the Christmas / New Year holiday period two soldiers are being chased around the walls of the Town's castle when one falls and dies. All does not ring true. In the festive celebrations fights break out in the town centre and there is a theory that this is a reprisal for the death of the soldier.
Another detraction for the team is the washing up of a body on the road crossing to one of my favourite places, Mersea Island, which is minus its head.
As the investigation progresses it is evident that there is a drug connection involved. The locality is very interesting for those who know the area and it is very well recreated as it moves between Colcheter, Fingringhoe, Mersea Island, Brightlingsea and Greenstead.
DI Lowry is a good character and good at his job and is well supported by his young assistant DC Daniel Keaton and a young WPC Jane Gabriel on who the jury is still out due to a relationship that is revealed half way through. Lowry's commanding officer, CS Stephen Sparks, is another good character who probably is too hands on for his rank, but this adds to the fun> Sparks has an interesting relationship with the head of the garrison, Brigadear Lane, known as 'The Beard' for his impressive amount of facial hair. A good twist to the normal run of the mill is Lowry's attractive wife, Jacqui, who is having an affair with a young doctor at the hospital where she is a nurse. In fact there relationship is in real trouble not least because Jacqui is rather fond of anything in trousers.
The book is well paced, not badly written and pretty enjoyable if not earth shattering. I'd recommend the book and I'm certainly on the look out for episode 2 of the DI Nick Lowry series.
April 17, 2018
Review to follow.
January 7, 2026
Really nice easy read. Living in Colchester added interest knowing the places in the book mentioned.
July 18, 2016
I am writing this review after receiving a copy of the book through RealReaders. This is the first book written by the author under the James Henry by-line - he is also known as James Gurbutt and has written three prequels to the popular ‘Frost’ series. Blackwater is a story is set in the same period - 1983 - but features Detective Inspector Nick Lowry. There is a similarity in style - Lowry’s immediate boss CS Stephen Sparks is rather a caricature of an 80’s old-style copper with his misogynistic views and his slightly sadistic attitude toward getting a confession from a low-life criminal, whilst simultaneously giving the ‘nod’ to another member of that fraternity who passes on useful information.
The book is set in the garrison town of Colchester; it is New Year and the weather is as bleak as the countryside surrounding the town. The descriptions of the estuaries and the marshlands, colourless and windswept, set the tone for the whole book, whilst the characters are as hard as the town itself.
The story is one of a drug deal gone wrong, with murder and mayhem as the result, and the man to sort it all out is Nick Lowry - a left-over mod with a sharp brain and a quick intelligence who leaves everyone else behind in the search for the truth. A boxer turned birdwatcher, who is trying to give up smoking (for reasons that are not clearly defined), he has the obligatory difficult relationship with his wife and son.
So far, so good; the problem for me was that I didn’t really like any of the characters - goodies or baddies - which meant that I had very little sympathy for any of them. For me, there were far too many characters with side-plots that cluttered up the main storyline and left me somewhat confused. The cover to the book announced it as ‘The First DI Nick Lowry Thriller’ and I did get the impression that Mr. Henry was setting the scene for later books a lot of the time. Adding to the confusion, a lot of the characters were variously called by their first name, their last name and their nickname, throughout the book. Like a lot of people, my fairly busy life means that I usually read in ‘bites’, but I can always follow a good story; but I don’t like having to constantly go back to see who was being beaten up this time! This book had me floundering at times, trying to work out who was dead, who was alive and who was on the run. And at the end …..I still wasn’t 100% sure, although I had worked out the ‘twist’ well beforehand.
However, now that the author has his background out of the way, and we have met the cast of characters for the series, the next books could well be a whole lot better. I’m certainly not writing them off, and will read book two when it comes out. If I could have given this one 3.5 stars I would have, but I’m afraid it has to settle for three.
The book is set in the garrison town of Colchester; it is New Year and the weather is as bleak as the countryside surrounding the town. The descriptions of the estuaries and the marshlands, colourless and windswept, set the tone for the whole book, whilst the characters are as hard as the town itself.
The story is one of a drug deal gone wrong, with murder and mayhem as the result, and the man to sort it all out is Nick Lowry - a left-over mod with a sharp brain and a quick intelligence who leaves everyone else behind in the search for the truth. A boxer turned birdwatcher, who is trying to give up smoking (for reasons that are not clearly defined), he has the obligatory difficult relationship with his wife and son.
So far, so good; the problem for me was that I didn’t really like any of the characters - goodies or baddies - which meant that I had very little sympathy for any of them. For me, there were far too many characters with side-plots that cluttered up the main storyline and left me somewhat confused. The cover to the book announced it as ‘The First DI Nick Lowry Thriller’ and I did get the impression that Mr. Henry was setting the scene for later books a lot of the time. Adding to the confusion, a lot of the characters were variously called by their first name, their last name and their nickname, throughout the book. Like a lot of people, my fairly busy life means that I usually read in ‘bites’, but I can always follow a good story; but I don’t like having to constantly go back to see who was being beaten up this time! This book had me floundering at times, trying to work out who was dead, who was alive and who was on the run. And at the end …..I still wasn’t 100% sure, although I had worked out the ‘twist’ well beforehand.
However, now that the author has his background out of the way, and we have met the cast of characters for the series, the next books could well be a whole lot better. I’m certainly not writing them off, and will read book two when it comes out. If I could have given this one 3.5 stars I would have, but I’m afraid it has to settle for three.
August 1, 2016
More 3.5 than 3
I received this via Real Readers and given their (now thankfully changed) policy of sending out books without prior warning it's sometimes a bit hit and miss as to whether it would be something I'd have chosen myself. As it happened I enjoyed this, and not having read any of the Frost prequels, came to this author blind and without any preconceptions.
The story is based in Colchester, a garrison town with nearby coastal areas, that play pivotal roles in the plot. The book created an immediate interest with opening chapters that introduce a headless body, a town vs army scuffle that results in a death and an illicit drugs deal. Combine this with a DI that is having problems of his own and there was enough to have me hooked. DI Nick Lowry is a great character and he along with his young protege DC Kenton, have a relationship that promises great things going forward, as it's already pretty well drawn in this first outing.
I enjoyed the fact that it was set in the early 80's for a number of reasons, not least because I can remember the era well. The book has enough of a nod towards earlier times, without being cliched. This is no Life on Mars meets the Sweeney, with stereotypical macho, homophobic and misogynist tendencies, though CS Sparks, Lowry's superior, has a couple of physical encounters that Jack Regan would have been proud of. It's really a period on the cusp of change when in theory women were starting to be seen as more than the tea makers and there are a couple of female officers that have promising roles. The other reason I like this, is because it is a straightforward police procedural with no hi-tech diversions. No DNA or CSI discoveries to complicate the issues, just straightforward old fashioned policing. The nearest we get to modern media are the use of computers and faxes!
It's a story that also relies on standard progressive timeline to forward the action. As that action takes place over the course of roughly a week, there are a lot of characters, theories and actual action to keep track of. If I have any criticism of the book, it would be that that at times, it got a bit complex and convoluted. It does work, but you need to concentrate.
Despite the occasional heaviness, the story kept me engaged and produced a result I was not expecting. So as a debut for DI Lowry and his team, I think it went well, it has enough characters of interest to certainly merit a second outing to see how they progress. and I'd happily read any future titles.
I received a review copy via Real Readers in return for an honest review.
I received this via Real Readers and given their (now thankfully changed) policy of sending out books without prior warning it's sometimes a bit hit and miss as to whether it would be something I'd have chosen myself. As it happened I enjoyed this, and not having read any of the Frost prequels, came to this author blind and without any preconceptions.
The story is based in Colchester, a garrison town with nearby coastal areas, that play pivotal roles in the plot. The book created an immediate interest with opening chapters that introduce a headless body, a town vs army scuffle that results in a death and an illicit drugs deal. Combine this with a DI that is having problems of his own and there was enough to have me hooked. DI Nick Lowry is a great character and he along with his young protege DC Kenton, have a relationship that promises great things going forward, as it's already pretty well drawn in this first outing.
I enjoyed the fact that it was set in the early 80's for a number of reasons, not least because I can remember the era well. The book has enough of a nod towards earlier times, without being cliched. This is no Life on Mars meets the Sweeney, with stereotypical macho, homophobic and misogynist tendencies, though CS Sparks, Lowry's superior, has a couple of physical encounters that Jack Regan would have been proud of. It's really a period on the cusp of change when in theory women were starting to be seen as more than the tea makers and there are a couple of female officers that have promising roles. The other reason I like this, is because it is a straightforward police procedural with no hi-tech diversions. No DNA or CSI discoveries to complicate the issues, just straightforward old fashioned policing. The nearest we get to modern media are the use of computers and faxes!
It's a story that also relies on standard progressive timeline to forward the action. As that action takes place over the course of roughly a week, there are a lot of characters, theories and actual action to keep track of. If I have any criticism of the book, it would be that that at times, it got a bit complex and convoluted. It does work, but you need to concentrate.
Despite the occasional heaviness, the story kept me engaged and produced a result I was not expecting. So as a debut for DI Lowry and his team, I think it went well, it has enough characters of interest to certainly merit a second outing to see how they progress. and I'd happily read any future titles.
I received a review copy via Real Readers in return for an honest review.
August 7, 2016
I received this book as part of the Real Readers programme. A police procedural set in 1980s Essex, where the townspeople, police and army garrison co-exist in an uncomfortable truce with the least thing likely to tip the balance and cause trouble. New Year’s Eve 1982 brings more than one crime which destroys the peace of the area and the lives of some of its inhabitants.
I received this book to review from the Real Readers programme and was very pleased to do so as I’m a big fan of UK police procedurals and always on the lookout for new detectives. There was much to like about this, for one thing the Essex setting which covers not only the towns, but also the countryside and coast of this county. I haven’t read any other crime novels set in the county (as far as I remember) so that was interesting. I was also pleased that it was set in the 1980s, though at the same time a little depressed that such a recent decade and one in which I was already an adult is now considered a historical setting! The relationship between the army top brass and the higher echelons of the police force is always interesting and adds an element I haven’t often seen in crime novels.
There was enough there to make me think I’d enjoy this book, but sadly there was also a lot that was just too clichéd. A policeman with an unhappy marriage, a young graduate entering the force and finding it difficult to be accepted by the rank and file, a young female officer not being taken seriously by the male-dominated force etc. Though I enjoyed the 1980s setting to an extent, the cultural references to that period were laid on with a trowel which became distracting. It also felt like the author was much more interested in the plot and getting it to work than in portraying fully-rounded characters. Some of the individuals we see feel almost like real people, though I felt this was truer of the men than the women, but others are a bit too one-dimensional to add much to the book.
I started off with great enthusiasm and wanting to enjoy it, but by the time I’d got around halfway through I was bored and skipping passages as I just wanted to get it over with. It felt distinctly average and not something that I hadn’t read a hundred times before. A few days after finishing it I can’t remember much about it other than being pleased it’s over. Should it develop into a series I won’t be bothering with any of the sequels.
Hard-core fans of plot-based police procedurals may have a better time than I did, but I can’t honestly recommend such an average piece of fiction.
I received this book to review from the Real Readers programme and was very pleased to do so as I’m a big fan of UK police procedurals and always on the lookout for new detectives. There was much to like about this, for one thing the Essex setting which covers not only the towns, but also the countryside and coast of this county. I haven’t read any other crime novels set in the county (as far as I remember) so that was interesting. I was also pleased that it was set in the 1980s, though at the same time a little depressed that such a recent decade and one in which I was already an adult is now considered a historical setting! The relationship between the army top brass and the higher echelons of the police force is always interesting and adds an element I haven’t often seen in crime novels.
There was enough there to make me think I’d enjoy this book, but sadly there was also a lot that was just too clichéd. A policeman with an unhappy marriage, a young graduate entering the force and finding it difficult to be accepted by the rank and file, a young female officer not being taken seriously by the male-dominated force etc. Though I enjoyed the 1980s setting to an extent, the cultural references to that period were laid on with a trowel which became distracting. It also felt like the author was much more interested in the plot and getting it to work than in portraying fully-rounded characters. Some of the individuals we see feel almost like real people, though I felt this was truer of the men than the women, but others are a bit too one-dimensional to add much to the book.
I started off with great enthusiasm and wanting to enjoy it, but by the time I’d got around halfway through I was bored and skipping passages as I just wanted to get it over with. It felt distinctly average and not something that I hadn’t read a hundred times before. A few days after finishing it I can’t remember much about it other than being pleased it’s over. Should it develop into a series I won’t be bothering with any of the sequels.
Hard-core fans of plot-based police procedurals may have a better time than I did, but I can’t honestly recommend such an average piece of fiction.
June 27, 2016
'You can take the boy out of Essex, but you can't take Essex out of the boy'.
New crime thriller 'Blackwater' by James Henry sets up a cracking new series, set in Colchester, Essex in the 1980s, and featuring DI Nick Lowry. I was intrigued when this book arrived through the door as, living in Essex my whole life and remembering the 80s with nostalgic fondness, what was not to like, as well as being a bit bored of every detective series seemingly set in Scotland or Brighton it was time for a change. The story here focuses on a complicated web of bodies washed up, army cover ups, corruption and missing persons, all linked to drugs shipments and the landscape and population of the blackwaters.
Setting the book in that era was a great idea, no mobiles, Internet or other modern distractions to take the reader from the story. Some of my favourite parts of the book are those that show policing as it used to be, before 9/11 and terrorism, along with in politically correct means of getting criminals to talk and actual doing the job rather than paperwork, in one scene 'the police airwaves crackled' with 'the general public and its daily grind', 'a granny arguing with Woolworths staff over stealing a ballpoint; truanting school kids vandalising a phone box', just enough of the past to make reading this book so much more enjoyable than modern detective crime.
The characters who here are almost fully formed and totally believable, despite the tendency with crime series to waste the first novel setting up relationships and complex issues to be revealed in later books. This novel has moments of humour, just enough mystery and intrigue to keep crime fans happy and a real sense of place, along with a cracking side story concerning Lowry and his wife Jaqui, a younger woman and set up from the start as not all her husband thinks she is in their marriage, entwining both of them closer to the investigation than he would like to admit.
Blackwater certainly worked for me and I'd highly recommend it when it is released by riverrun on 14 July 2016 in the UK along with others in the series which I will eagerly keep an eye out for.
July 25, 2016
I always find it much easier to write a bad good review than a good bad one, and perhaps it's the same with novels: this is certainly more a bad good book than a good bad one (which would be much more fun to read).
First, the characters are indistinctly drawn in themselves and therefore insufficiently distinct from one another. The author refers to them by last name (fair enough), while they refer to each other by first name (again fair enough) - but long before we, the readers, have got the mental images properly straight, because
Second, the plot strands are too many and too briefly dealt with. There is a drugs shipment; a sexual encounter on the ward between a doctor and nurse; the death of one man and the escape of another on a Saturday night in Colchester; the relationship between the local police and a locally garrisoned military regiment. We are breathlessly shuffled from one of these to the next (each heading giving us location and time to the nearest 10 minutes, as if it matters for goodness' sake) without our ever properly knowing who's who or what the hell is going on. One imagines, of course, that all will come together at some point ... so one continues ruefully to check that, yes, this thing is 484 pages long ... and yet one doesn't feel like making the effort, because
Third, none of the plot strands is really good enough: the drugs shipment is lame; the doctor and nurse are unappealing characters, insofar as they are characters at all (the fact that the nurse is our hero's wife induces only a yawn); the death of the squaddie just isn't exciting or intriguing, and regarding the prickly relations between cops and soldiers, rendered through the medium of a shared interest in boxing of all things: frankly, who cares?
I tried, I really did, but nope, this was just a trial from beginning to the point at which I realised that life is too short. I haven't time to waste on the likes of the bore that is DI Nick Lowry, his unpleasant wife or his dull existence.
'The first DI Nick Lowry thriller' trumpets the dust jacket. I'd be thrilled if it was his last.
First, the characters are indistinctly drawn in themselves and therefore insufficiently distinct from one another. The author refers to them by last name (fair enough), while they refer to each other by first name (again fair enough) - but long before we, the readers, have got the mental images properly straight, because
Second, the plot strands are too many and too briefly dealt with. There is a drugs shipment; a sexual encounter on the ward between a doctor and nurse; the death of one man and the escape of another on a Saturday night in Colchester; the relationship between the local police and a locally garrisoned military regiment. We are breathlessly shuffled from one of these to the next (each heading giving us location and time to the nearest 10 minutes, as if it matters for goodness' sake) without our ever properly knowing who's who or what the hell is going on. One imagines, of course, that all will come together at some point ... so one continues ruefully to check that, yes, this thing is 484 pages long ... and yet one doesn't feel like making the effort, because
Third, none of the plot strands is really good enough: the drugs shipment is lame; the doctor and nurse are unappealing characters, insofar as they are characters at all (the fact that the nurse is our hero's wife induces only a yawn); the death of the squaddie just isn't exciting or intriguing, and regarding the prickly relations between cops and soldiers, rendered through the medium of a shared interest in boxing of all things: frankly, who cares?
I tried, I really did, but nope, this was just a trial from beginning to the point at which I realised that life is too short. I haven't time to waste on the likes of the bore that is DI Nick Lowry, his unpleasant wife or his dull existence.
'The first DI Nick Lowry thriller' trumpets the dust jacket. I'd be thrilled if it was his last.
April 28, 2016
This started quite well, but in the end I got pretty tired of it, I'm afraid. It's a fairly competently-written police procedural set in Colchester in 1983, but neither the plot nor the setting really did much for me.
We're introduced to DI Nick Lowry, who is clearly going to have a series written about him. He's a brilliant, fearless and inspiring but modest CID man whose boss is a sexist, drunken dinosaur. The plot revolves around drug smuggling and dodgy goings on at the local army base…plus a load of stuff about Lowry's unfaithful, unreliable wife, the romantic leanings (or otherwise) of Lowry's "team" – a fast-tracked, highly educated DC and a WPC who just happens to be an ex-model. (Yes, you heard right – an ex-model.) I rather enjoyed the first hundred pages or so, but the book goes on for the best part of 500 pages and it's just slow, unnecessarily convoluted and not quite convincing in too many ways. I got to page 300 with a sinking feeling that I still had 200 pages to wade through if I wanted to find out what happened. A rigorous edit down to 350 pages would have helped a lot.
It's not actively bad, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary and tedious padding – three pages of wholly irrelevant description of trivial events just so the dinosaur boss can find out a routine piece of information, for example – and I began muttering "for God's sake get on with it" to myself, and it goes on so much that I rather lost my grip on the convoluted which involved dozens of names without much character attached. Even the main characters are somewhat stereotyped and there's a good deal of stale cliché in the writing; "..going nineteen to the dozen…", "..he took it upon himself to…" and so on. Nothing frightful, but it's pretty ordinary stuff, really, and I felt the same about the period, which didn’t quite permeate the book as it should.
I can't say I'll be looking out for future Lowry books. This might make a decent brain-off beach read but I can't really recommend it beyond that.
We're introduced to DI Nick Lowry, who is clearly going to have a series written about him. He's a brilliant, fearless and inspiring but modest CID man whose boss is a sexist, drunken dinosaur. The plot revolves around drug smuggling and dodgy goings on at the local army base…plus a load of stuff about Lowry's unfaithful, unreliable wife, the romantic leanings (or otherwise) of Lowry's "team" – a fast-tracked, highly educated DC and a WPC who just happens to be an ex-model. (Yes, you heard right – an ex-model.) I rather enjoyed the first hundred pages or so, but the book goes on for the best part of 500 pages and it's just slow, unnecessarily convoluted and not quite convincing in too many ways. I got to page 300 with a sinking feeling that I still had 200 pages to wade through if I wanted to find out what happened. A rigorous edit down to 350 pages would have helped a lot.
It's not actively bad, but there's an awful lot of unnecessary and tedious padding – three pages of wholly irrelevant description of trivial events just so the dinosaur boss can find out a routine piece of information, for example – and I began muttering "for God's sake get on with it" to myself, and it goes on so much that I rather lost my grip on the convoluted which involved dozens of names without much character attached. Even the main characters are somewhat stereotyped and there's a good deal of stale cliché in the writing; "..going nineteen to the dozen…", "..he took it upon himself to…" and so on. Nothing frightful, but it's pretty ordinary stuff, really, and I felt the same about the period, which didn’t quite permeate the book as it should.
I can't say I'll be looking out for future Lowry books. This might make a decent brain-off beach read but I can't really recommend it beyond that.
June 28, 2016
The first week of 1983 is a busy one for the police in Colchester – a headless corpse on the road, a dead soldier in the castle park and two bodies in a council house. Enter DI Nick Lowry and his colleagues in what is to be the first in a series of DI Lowry thrillers. There are many strands to this novel and Henry weaves them competently into a seamless read. He also provides an interesting glimpse into the different practices of the police force and the Military Police, and the tensions between army and locals that exist in a town which houses barracks.
Set in a time without computers or mobile phones, we re-visit stereotypes familiar from 1970/80s TV cop shows, where sexism is rife, it’s a man’s world and boxing results are more important than clear-up rates. A bit of a trip down memory lane for those of us who remember the 1980s, it might almost be branded an historical police procedural for a younger generation unused to the notion of senior police officers carelessly punching people to get the answers they want and drinking on duty as a matter of course.
The characters, especially the females, came across as stereotypes with such a lack of depth I felt totally indifferent to all of them. Such a substantial book requires either a gripping plot or a deeper exploration of character to sustain it, whereas this one, lacking both, had a lot of padding that I feel would have benefitted from editing. Although the plot is well-woven, it does meander somewhat which detracts from the pace and makes it an entertaining rather than enthralling read.
I feel the ending let it down, not least in leaving so many threads unresolved. Personally I prefer an author to complete a book that is good enough to make me want to read the next one on the basis of the writing, not because it would be the only way to find out what failed to be adequately rounded off – there’s a difference between feeling intrigued and feeling cheated.
If you want a simple, no frills, police procedural, this will satisfy.
Set in a time without computers or mobile phones, we re-visit stereotypes familiar from 1970/80s TV cop shows, where sexism is rife, it’s a man’s world and boxing results are more important than clear-up rates. A bit of a trip down memory lane for those of us who remember the 1980s, it might almost be branded an historical police procedural for a younger generation unused to the notion of senior police officers carelessly punching people to get the answers they want and drinking on duty as a matter of course.
The characters, especially the females, came across as stereotypes with such a lack of depth I felt totally indifferent to all of them. Such a substantial book requires either a gripping plot or a deeper exploration of character to sustain it, whereas this one, lacking both, had a lot of padding that I feel would have benefitted from editing. Although the plot is well-woven, it does meander somewhat which detracts from the pace and makes it an entertaining rather than enthralling read.
I feel the ending let it down, not least in leaving so many threads unresolved. Personally I prefer an author to complete a book that is good enough to make me want to read the next one on the basis of the writing, not because it would be the only way to find out what failed to be adequately rounded off – there’s a difference between feeling intrigued and feeling cheated.
If you want a simple, no frills, police procedural, this will satisfy.
March 31, 2019
Blackwater is set in post-Falklands early 80s in the military town of Colchester, where tensions between the locals and the soldiers stationed there provide regular headaches for the local police. However, a more serious problem for them comes in the form of four deaths in the space of a few days and a major drug smuggling operation. DI Nick Lowry is the police officer tasked with solving the various, apparently unrelated crimes, while the same time having to face the reality that his marriage is in trouble.
I should say from the outset that I probably don’t fit the demographic that Blackwater is aimed at. It is quite masculine in tone and content, not in any negative way but it just isn’t a style that appeals to me.
Having said that there are some issues with it that are more general.
My main complaint is that I didn’t really get to know any of the characters well. I know that it is intended to be the first in a series and that it is usual for characters to be developed across a number of books but there needs to be a balance so that readers get to know the characters well enough to want to come back and Blackwater doesn’t achieve that balance.
The whole story takes place over the course of a single week and is structured like a diary. Unlike a diary, it isn’t written from a single character’s point of view. I don’t usually mind multiple points of view in a story – in fact I think it can make them more interesting – but I found the ‘head hopping’ in this book confusing at times as the ‘voice’ of the narrative would switch suddenly from one character to another.
I also felt that the police solving the crime was wrapped up too quickly at the end and I didn’t always follow how they had come to the conclusions that they did.
On a more positive note, the story was believable and the pace was very good. Furthermore, having lived in an an estuary town in the early 80s, I can vouch that James Henry has captured the feel of the time very well.
I should say from the outset that I probably don’t fit the demographic that Blackwater is aimed at. It is quite masculine in tone and content, not in any negative way but it just isn’t a style that appeals to me.
Having said that there are some issues with it that are more general.
My main complaint is that I didn’t really get to know any of the characters well. I know that it is intended to be the first in a series and that it is usual for characters to be developed across a number of books but there needs to be a balance so that readers get to know the characters well enough to want to come back and Blackwater doesn’t achieve that balance.
The whole story takes place over the course of a single week and is structured like a diary. Unlike a diary, it isn’t written from a single character’s point of view. I don’t usually mind multiple points of view in a story – in fact I think it can make them more interesting – but I found the ‘head hopping’ in this book confusing at times as the ‘voice’ of the narrative would switch suddenly from one character to another.
I also felt that the police solving the crime was wrapped up too quickly at the end and I didn’t always follow how they had come to the conclusions that they did.
On a more positive note, the story was believable and the pace was very good. Furthermore, having lived in an an estuary town in the early 80s, I can vouch that James Henry has captured the feel of the time very well.
July 3, 2016
I received with book via RealReaders to review prior to publication date.
This novel introduces us to DI Nick Lowry. The story is set in the 1980's in Essex, and includes the strained relationship between the army and the police when dealing with the behaviour of soldiers.
I am struggling to provide an overview of the plotlines, and this is the main flaw of this book, in my opinion. There is no clear and coherent path through the events.
It seemed more about setting the scene for this new DI and hinting, nay making obvious, the issues in his marriage.
I persevered to the end of the book but it was a struggle in parts to keep track of the story and where it was all leading. There was lots of superfluous information and scene setting that did nothing for the plot or the character development.
I wouldn't race out to buy the next book in the series. It certainly didn't grip me like Peter James or Mo Hayder
This novel introduces us to DI Nick Lowry. The story is set in the 1980's in Essex, and includes the strained relationship between the army and the police when dealing with the behaviour of soldiers.
I am struggling to provide an overview of the plotlines, and this is the main flaw of this book, in my opinion. There is no clear and coherent path through the events.
It seemed more about setting the scene for this new DI and hinting, nay making obvious, the issues in his marriage.
I persevered to the end of the book but it was a struggle in parts to keep track of the story and where it was all leading. There was lots of superfluous information and scene setting that did nothing for the plot or the character development.
I wouldn't race out to buy the next book in the series. It certainly didn't grip me like Peter James or Mo Hayder
May 25, 2017
A slightly shaky start, but a good plot
An unusual plot set in the early 80's, involving a headless body, drugs, the local Army garrison, fog laden marshes, and a dodgy copper.
There were a great many characters, and trying to work out which person fitted into which group of people became a bit confusing at times.
We have old school 'bash m and smash m' coppers like Sparks and the Dodger, and others who are trying to drag the police slowly into the computerised age. Lowry himself is a good bloke. His wife who is having an affair however, comes across as being very selfish, and who gets herself mixed up; albeit nominally, in Lowry's investigation. The person I feel most sorry for is Matthew their young son who is constantly being palmed off on his grandparents and friends, because his parents are always at work.
The ending was left hanging a bit, but hopefully all will become clear in the next book. I did enjoy it though and will look forward to the follow up.
An unusual plot set in the early 80's, involving a headless body, drugs, the local Army garrison, fog laden marshes, and a dodgy copper.
There were a great many characters, and trying to work out which person fitted into which group of people became a bit confusing at times.
We have old school 'bash m and smash m' coppers like Sparks and the Dodger, and others who are trying to drag the police slowly into the computerised age. Lowry himself is a good bloke. His wife who is having an affair however, comes across as being very selfish, and who gets herself mixed up; albeit nominally, in Lowry's investigation. The person I feel most sorry for is Matthew their young son who is constantly being palmed off on his grandparents and friends, because his parents are always at work.
The ending was left hanging a bit, but hopefully all will become clear in the next book. I did enjoy it though and will look forward to the follow up.
July 17, 2016
I received an ARC of this book from real readers, This is set in the town of Colchester in the 1980's and reflects the military and civilian populations of the town well. However it was packed with to many early 80's references for me it felt a little like the author was overdoing them to prove the time frame for the story. The crime premise was inventive and well handled but the characters were very 2 dimensional and didn't have enough about them for me to feel really involved in the story. Also at points the story is quite sexist, somewhat in keeping with the times but it was an unnecessary inclusion in the story and felt like something that was maybe the authors own issues rather than the characters. If you like UK based crime this is a well plotted crime and the authors first step into writing his own characters, I'm sure he will improve from here
July 5, 2016
I received this book via Real Readers in exchange for an honest review
A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result, the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's reckless driving.
With an atmospheric setting in rural Essex and in contrast squaddie town Colchester, I found the Military angle different and interesting it is a good read with believable characters & subtle plot twists that held my attention throughout a good book is when you want to find out the ending!
This First Police Procedural is the first in I suspect a new series.
A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result, the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's reckless driving.
With an atmospheric setting in rural Essex and in contrast squaddie town Colchester, I found the Military angle different and interesting it is a good read with believable characters & subtle plot twists that held my attention throughout a good book is when you want to find out the ending!
This First Police Procedural is the first in I suspect a new series.
August 14, 2017
This only just scraped three stars.
I was hoping for a lot from this, its Essex estuarine setting is one I am strongly drawn to. Ultimately the story was a good one, despite early (but necessary) confusion. Intricately-plotted, and the interaction with the military added another dimension.
But, oh but, the whole of it cried out for - merited - a much stronger editor, because to me it seemed the characters were insufficiently individual (and overly incompetent), much of the dialogue was stilted, the scattering of 1983 indicator rather too heavy-handed, some verbs too loosely applied and, one character in particular behaved in a totally ludicrous manner. Worth saying though, not a single typo did I spot!
I truly hope the next in the series receives the care it merits.
I was hoping for a lot from this, its Essex estuarine setting is one I am strongly drawn to. Ultimately the story was a good one, despite early (but necessary) confusion. Intricately-plotted, and the interaction with the military added another dimension.
But, oh but, the whole of it cried out for - merited - a much stronger editor, because to me it seemed the characters were insufficiently individual (and overly incompetent), much of the dialogue was stilted, the scattering of 1983 indicator rather too heavy-handed, some verbs too loosely applied and, one character in particular behaved in a totally ludicrous manner. Worth saying though, not a single typo did I spot!
I truly hope the next in the series receives the care it merits.
January 24, 2017
Interesting concept. Set in a barracks town, Colchester, involves the rivalry between police and army and friction between soldiers and civilians. However, some of it just didn't ring true. A first novel about DI Nick Lowry whose wife's cheating on him, but I didn't care.
November 3, 2016
I'll read more of this series
September 17, 2023
I probably should have given a 3 but boosted up to a 4 as I loved the detail of the area I was living in in the 80s. A lot of the descriptions rang true of Mersea Island and Colchester at the time.
I thought the plot was quite ingenious although the characters seemed a little stereotyped such as the bumbling 'Dodger' of Mersea police and the openly brutal Sparkes, who takes his frustration out on a number of suspects.
The main character Nick Lowry comes across as charmless and a bit flat, even when he has to decide whether to report evidence that places his cheating wife, nurse Jaqui Lowry at the murder scene of the two drug mules. The mystery of the double murder, as well as of another headless, apparently German corpse found on the causeway at Mersea, and the mysterious death of a soldier in Castle Park, came together well. It was ultimately solved by a combination of the misogynistic CI Sparks, Lowry, his new sidekick Kenton, and tall glamorous ex-model, WPC Jane Gabriel.
Good enjoyable plot, but a little bit tired in characterisation.
I thought the plot was quite ingenious although the characters seemed a little stereotyped such as the bumbling 'Dodger' of Mersea police and the openly brutal Sparkes, who takes his frustration out on a number of suspects.
The main character Nick Lowry comes across as charmless and a bit flat, even when he has to decide whether to report evidence that places his cheating wife, nurse Jaqui Lowry at the murder scene of the two drug mules. The mystery of the double murder, as well as of another headless, apparently German corpse found on the causeway at Mersea, and the mysterious death of a soldier in Castle Park, came together well. It was ultimately solved by a combination of the misogynistic CI Sparks, Lowry, his new sidekick Kenton, and tall glamorous ex-model, WPC Jane Gabriel.
Good enjoyable plot, but a little bit tired in characterisation.
October 18, 2021
Dull police procedural that ticks the template boxes. A sharply observed location, that will be the backdrop for the rest of the series that I will be giving a wide berth to. A sense of time, set in the early 1980s.
Colchester, and the strange seascape of the Essex coast is the location.
There are three policemen... Nick Lowry - a middle aged/middle of the road copper and increasingly poorly drawn and adding little - a flash new recruit, driving around in a sportscar and a young lady recruit who's only purpose to the story appears to be to expose the very much expected sexism of the age.
The crime is plodding - a couple of smugglers bringing in amphetamines and a headless corpse washed up.
Few developments, no real intrigue and glacial pacing.
I couldn't wait to put it down. I won't be picking up #2 in the series.
Colchester, and the strange seascape of the Essex coast is the location.
There are three policemen... Nick Lowry - a middle aged/middle of the road copper and increasingly poorly drawn and adding little - a flash new recruit, driving around in a sportscar and a young lady recruit who's only purpose to the story appears to be to expose the very much expected sexism of the age.
The crime is plodding - a couple of smugglers bringing in amphetamines and a headless corpse washed up.
Few developments, no real intrigue and glacial pacing.
I couldn't wait to put it down. I won't be picking up #2 in the series.
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