What do you think?
Rate this book
Inspector Rudd #1
Not One of Us
243 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
59 people want to read
About the author
June Thomson
70 books21 followersJune Thomson, a former teacher, has published 24 crime novels, 18 of which feature Detective Chief Inspector Jack Finch and his sergeant, Tom Boyce. She has also written six short story collections of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Her books have been translated into many languages. She lives in St Albans in Hertfordshire.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 28, 2013
1972, #1 Inspector Rudd [aka Inspector Jock Finch], Wexford, rural England
a young girl is murdered and left in a wood, and it appears an odd young man may be responsible; tidy genteel police procedural but suffers a bit from first-book-itis, three, almost three-and-one-half stars. [she becomes a better writer in her later books, though].
Promiscuous village girl isn't careful, and winds up in the woods with her neck broken. There's an odd young man who's come to live in the outskirts of the small village recently, and "talk" begins to circulate about/around him, as the case shows no signs of being solved any time soon, and then there's more than talk. Inspector Rudd is a very thorough man, and repeatedly goes over the evidence in the case which, unfortunately, is pretty slight, and he's not sure if the stranger is the killer; all he knows is that he feels a bit of sympathy for him, for some reason.
Beautifully detailed story of village life and gossip, and how it can grow to be a deadly thing, mixed with a traditional police investigation, and the attempts of a man to live mostly by himself. Thomson has a strong plot and very good writing chops, but her first novel suffers a bit from a terrific build-up that doesn't quite fulfill its promise by the end. Don't get me wrong, the ending is fairly good, and all the bits and pieces of the case and the over-arching social stories are knitted together well, it's just that her treatment of the conclusion is awfully abrupt and rather unsatisfactory.
You see, she seems to pick the murderer at random from the cast of secondary characters at approximately the 85% point, and then rush home with all the solutions to all the puzzles right then and there. All the possible main suspects are discarded, all the careful build-up of connections built up between the inspector and the suspects/witnesses in the case just seems to go by the boards. What a waste, imo! Her solution makes sense, actually works quite well, but it doesn't seem to jibe all that smoothly with what had gone before, kwim?
It's as though she worked herself into a corner, and couldn't quite find her way out of it, and so picked upon one of the characters that she had not, up to that late point, included much at all in the story - no backstory to trip her up, you see? Very unsatisfactory to me, it was, yet the entire story was beautifully written, with a bit of unexpected pathos at the end as well.
BOTTOM LINE: A good read, not the best she can do I'm sure, but entertaining in the Colin Dexter/Reg Hill style about a gruff/brusque Inspector who's mostly solitary and uncomfortable in his own skin. Room for development, indeed.
Luckily there's a bunch more in the series. I've read #s 2, 3, and 5 previously, and they're much stronger, more "complete" right to the finish than this first novel. Her writing is similar to Caroline Graham's too, although Inspector Rudd isn't quite as likeable as the genial Barnaby. BTW, the original name of the lead character was "Inspector Jock Finch" and the British editions use this name while the American editions call him "Inspector Rudd" - it's the same guy, though. Go figure.
a young girl is murdered and left in a wood, and it appears an odd young man may be responsible; tidy genteel police procedural but suffers a bit from first-book-itis, three, almost three-and-one-half stars. [she becomes a better writer in her later books, though].
Promiscuous village girl isn't careful, and winds up in the woods with her neck broken. There's an odd young man who's come to live in the outskirts of the small village recently, and "talk" begins to circulate about/around him, as the case shows no signs of being solved any time soon, and then there's more than talk. Inspector Rudd is a very thorough man, and repeatedly goes over the evidence in the case which, unfortunately, is pretty slight, and he's not sure if the stranger is the killer; all he knows is that he feels a bit of sympathy for him, for some reason.
Beautifully detailed story of village life and gossip, and how it can grow to be a deadly thing, mixed with a traditional police investigation, and the attempts of a man to live mostly by himself. Thomson has a strong plot and very good writing chops, but her first novel suffers a bit from a terrific build-up that doesn't quite fulfill its promise by the end. Don't get me wrong, the ending is fairly good, and all the bits and pieces of the case and the over-arching social stories are knitted together well, it's just that her treatment of the conclusion is awfully abrupt and rather unsatisfactory.
You see, she seems to pick the murderer at random from the cast of secondary characters at approximately the 85% point, and then rush home with all the solutions to all the puzzles right then and there. All the possible main suspects are discarded, all the careful build-up of connections built up between the inspector and the suspects/witnesses in the case just seems to go by the boards. What a waste, imo! Her solution makes sense, actually works quite well, but it doesn't seem to jibe all that smoothly with what had gone before, kwim?
It's as though she worked herself into a corner, and couldn't quite find her way out of it, and so picked upon one of the characters that she had not, up to that late point, included much at all in the story - no backstory to trip her up, you see? Very unsatisfactory to me, it was, yet the entire story was beautifully written, with a bit of unexpected pathos at the end as well.
BOTTOM LINE: A good read, not the best she can do I'm sure, but entertaining in the Colin Dexter/Reg Hill style about a gruff/brusque Inspector who's mostly solitary and uncomfortable in his own skin. Room for development, indeed.
Luckily there's a bunch more in the series. I've read #s 2, 3, and 5 previously, and they're much stronger, more "complete" right to the finish than this first novel. Her writing is similar to Caroline Graham's too, although Inspector Rudd isn't quite as likeable as the genial Barnaby. BTW, the original name of the lead character was "Inspector Jock Finch" and the British editions use this name while the American editions call him "Inspector Rudd" - it's the same guy, though. Go figure.
March 18, 2025
(Sphere paperback edition)
An interesting read. I’d read the 2nd in the series about a month ago, was intrigued, and set out to find and read the 1st, and here we are. The character progression of Inspector Rudd (DI Finch in these British editions) was notable for several reasons. Finch/Rudd himself was more of a benign fellow when first I encountered him - but here in the original, he seemed more pointed and may I say hardened; and then, mid book he seems to realize that and make a conscious effort to change…the second tale (Death Cap) showed a rural England that was, shall we say, kinder - but this first story shows the country folk at their provincial worst, or at least less nice…
Not sure if writer Thompson got a good part of the way through her first effort, decided she didn’t like the way things were going, pivoted to a new direction and sent both the book and the Inspector thataway, but the atmosphere was palpably different.
This first mystery focusses on a typical loner, who drifts into a rural town and rents a ramshackle old cottage and keeps very much to himself, thus becoming a topic of curiosity, discussion and animosity among the locals. When a murdered girl is found in the vicinity suspicion falls on the “outsider” of course; Inspector Finch seems headed that way himself…and then…well, then it takes a slightly different tack. A very interesting tandem reading experience, especially in this inverted order. I look forward to reading the next…
An interesting read. I’d read the 2nd in the series about a month ago, was intrigued, and set out to find and read the 1st, and here we are. The character progression of Inspector Rudd (DI Finch in these British editions) was notable for several reasons. Finch/Rudd himself was more of a benign fellow when first I encountered him - but here in the original, he seemed more pointed and may I say hardened; and then, mid book he seems to realize that and make a conscious effort to change…the second tale (Death Cap) showed a rural England that was, shall we say, kinder - but this first story shows the country folk at their provincial worst, or at least less nice…
Not sure if writer Thompson got a good part of the way through her first effort, decided she didn’t like the way things were going, pivoted to a new direction and sent both the book and the Inspector thataway, but the atmosphere was palpably different.
This first mystery focusses on a typical loner, who drifts into a rural town and rents a ramshackle old cottage and keeps very much to himself, thus becoming a topic of curiosity, discussion and animosity among the locals. When a murdered girl is found in the vicinity suspicion falls on the “outsider” of course; Inspector Finch seems headed that way himself…and then…well, then it takes a slightly different tack. A very interesting tandem reading experience, especially in this inverted order. I look forward to reading the next…
November 8, 2022
A very common story written in a very straight forward manner but I appreciated the structure and simplicity of it. Sad ending...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews