Beyond Reach

DI Joe Faraday #10

by Graham Hurley

A brutal hit-and-run killing opens the path to another 25-year-old crime.
A young couple are mown down in a hit-and-run incident. The girl is badly injured, the boy dies on the way to hospital. According to the sole witness the boy was in the middle of the road giving the approaching car the finger. Operation Melody is launched with DI Faraday at the helm. It reveals a mother driven to desperation by the attacks on her son—and a link to a terrible crime from the early 1980s that the victim does not want investigated. The investigation will rip apart a happy family, but the high-ups are desperate for their cold cases to be cleared up, whatever the cost. And round it all circles ex-DC Paul Winter, who has his own reasons for keeping the lid on an old crime.

Genres: Crime, Mystery

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Graham Hurley was born November, 1946 in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. His seaside childhood was punctuated by football, swimming, afternoons on the dodgems, run-ins with the police, multiple raids on the local library - plus near-total immersion in English post-war movies.

Directed and produced documentaries for ITV through two decades, winning a number of national and international awards. Launched a writing career on the back of a six-part drama commission for ITV: "Rules of Engagement". Left TV and became full time writer in 1991.

Authored nine stand-alone thrillers plus "Airshow", a fly-on-the-wall novel-length piece of reportage, before accepting Orion invitation to become a crime writer. Drew gleefully on home-town Portsmouth (“Pompey”) as the basis for an on-going series featuring D/I Joe Faraday and D/C Paul Winter.

Contributed five years of personal columns to the Portsmouth News, penned a number of plays and dramatic monologues for local production (including the city’s millenium celebration, "Willoughby and Son"), then decamped to Devon for a more considered take on Pompey low-life.

The Faraday series came to an end after 12 books. Healthy sales at home and abroad, plus mega-successful French TV adaptations, tempted Orion to commission a spin-off series, set in the West Country, featuring D/S Jimmy Suttle.

Launch title - "Western Approaches" - published 2012. "Touching Distance" to hit the bookstores next month (21st November).

Has recently self-published a number of titles on Kindle including "Strictly No Flowers" (a dark take on crime fiction), "Estuary" (a deeply personal memoir) and "Backstory" (how and why he came to write the Faraday series).

Married to the delectable Lin. Three grown-up sons (Tom, Jack and Woody). Plus corking grandson Dylan.

You're very welcome to contact Graham through his website: www.grahamhurley.co.uk

Or direct on seasidepictures@btinternet.com.


Series:
* D.I. Joe Faraday

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some reviews are just flat out hard to write. Normally it's because the book is good, and I'm in real danger of gushing. Particularly in this case, where gushing got dangerously close to an understatement.

BEYOND REACH is the 10th Joe Faraday and Paul Winter book from British author Graham Hurley. The series started out as a police procedural, with a good strong "villain" character - a bit of a rough diamond in drug lord with a decent streak, Bazza Mackenzie. Joe is a long-term cop, once completely content in his role as a DI, single-parent to his profoundly deaf son. He is a widower with a passion for bird watching, poignantly tentative in his love life, not so content anymore. Paul was a young cop struggling within a system which he ultimately chucked for the dark side. At this point the series moved from a really good police procedural to something much more. The focus on Winter intensifies, although the police side remains involved. An edge comes in as the two main characters play off each other - sometimes directly, more often indirectly. Their strong-points and weaknesses are contrasted. Events are seen from the two viewpoints, the difference between "knowing" and "guessing" on both sides is explored, there's some murky lines between good and bad, black and white. All of this is just getting better and better with every book.

Winter, working as Bazza Mackenzie's right-hand man, has been involved in some stuff he wishes he hadn't seen. He's also involved in some positive changes in Bazza's life, as the Mackenzie family attempt a little genuine intervention work with the underprivileged youth of Portsmouth. Whilst Winter is uncomfortable in the position of working closely with those kids, he also finds he is being drawn closer and closer into the family. It's this closeness that helps take these books somewhere different. Winter has a view from within the camp, but not immersion in the life, he's an insider and an outsider all at the same time. Friend of Bazza's he's also still a friend of his old colleague Joe Faraday. He's involved with the day to day operations of Bazza's network and family, but he's also not necessarily a crook. He's taking an interesting path into the world of part-enforcer, part-right hand man, part conscience, part advisor, part observer, part player. Tricky to have so many parts!

Meanwhile Faraday's got things going on in his own life. The current case he's working on - the hit & run death of a local thug, seems like it's going to be a simple case of following the obvious. This victim is a man universally regarded as a bully and the murderer of a young boy, but that police investigation was never able to find witnesses or evidence. Faraday's biggest problems are in negotiating the politics within the force, and the complications of his home life when his beloved girlfriend packs up and heads overseas on a University secondment, seemingly with little regard to what it will do to their relationship. Faraday is lost at home, and dispirited at work - the pressures of the force's political and petty power struggles seem to be getting to him. Because of his general dissatisfaction there's always that elephant in the room - what next for Faraday?

One of the things that this author does incredibly well is provide multiple intersections for the lives of the cops and the villains. Winter's current project is to find out the facts about Bazza's daughter Esme's affair with a top ranking cop. A cop that has been involved in major investigations into Bazza's empire. A cop that Faraday knows. The kidnapping of Esme's son causes everything to go very pear-shaped, that investigation pulling the two sides uncomfortably close together. Faraday's hit & run case is close to Bazza's empire - the wild and dangerous world of the housing estates, the drugs, the under-privileged, right into the same environs as Bazza's illegal activities as well as his charity project.

Another thing done well is the way that Portsmouth (or Pompey as it's known affectionately) is portrayed. The urban decay, crime, desperation of some areas played off against the wealth and privilege of others. Bazza, as a character, striding through both environments - his wealth earning him a place in the privilege, his background making him more relaxed in the decay. And it's striking how apt this title is - there's so many things in this world that seem BEYOND REACH. Peace of mind, pride, escape, retribution, justice, survival. In different ways, for just about every character in this world, there's something somewhere that's just slightly beyond their reach.

If you're new to the Faraday and Winter series, then dive in somewhere. It would be better if you could start a little earlier in the series to get you up to speed with the history of these characters and their earlier encounters. But if you're having trouble getting hold of any of the earlier books - then start with BEYOND REACH. But if you're a fan of really good English crime fiction - then make sure this series is on your reading lists.

Faraday / Winter Books:

* Turnstone
* The Take
* Angels Passing
* Deadlight
* Cut to Black
* Blood and Honey
* One Under
* The Price of Darkness
* No Lovelier Death

Non-Series:

* Rules of Engagement
* Reaper
* The Devil's Breath
* Thunder in the Blood
* Sabbathman
* The Perfect Soldier
* Heaven's Light
* Nocturne
* Permissible Limits

[Reindert Van Zwaal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not good, not bad either. The story was interesting with some nice twists which you will probably like if ur a fan of detectives. For me it didn't do the job, as I quite missed a feeling of tension and the urge to want to read on. A fine read that didn't really took me. Missed depth (like character descriptions) and emotion.

[Nat K · Rating 4 out of 5]

"To survive in a job like this you had to kill a part of you. You had to become hard or unforgiving, or simply indifferent to the consequences of a particular action. The law was nothing more than a set of rules. That's the way society functioned....That was the deal. That's what he'd signed up for." (page 353).

For me, the above sums up the book and where I feel the character of DI Joe Faraday has ended up towards the end of this really enjoyable series set in Pompey (Portsmouth). Ultimately, who's to say when justice is ever really done? It's all a matter of perspective and possibly even what you get from it being served (to your advantage).

This book for me really brought to the forefront Joe Faraday's increasing disinterest and disillusionment for the job (of policing). While he obviously still cares, he also realises that there's only so much one individual can do, and often bureaucracy and even society at large drives the result of cases he's working on.

I know this series is drawing to a close, and I already know what will happen (due to being too curious and reading spoilers for the next book). I'm really sad to be saying adieu to such a quiet, thoughtful character as Joe Faraday.

[Sue Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This British mystery scribe is my new favourite treat. Detective Inspector Joe Faraday works the Portsmouth area on England's south coast; a vibrant backdrop to the action which initially seems to centre around a horrific hit and run traffic accident. Of course, there is far more to it. Not least, Hurley has created a wonderful wealthy villain in Bazza whose character is a great foil for Paul Winter, the morally compromised former cop in his employ. Slight shades of The Sopranos UK-style in the familial set-up. (Beyond Reach is DI Faraday #10 so I have some catching up to do. #6, Blood & Honey lingers in my mind from a couple of years ago, both because it was brilliant and because Winter's life on the force was compromised by blinding migraines, among other things. It's a series worth your time.)

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like DI Joe Faraday - a lot. He comes over as real, fallible, likeable and whilst good at his job, as exhausted and dispirited as most of us are when things simply get too much. As ever, a good story, well told, with a cast of believable characters.

[Alison Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like British crime fiction you'll like this. The central characters, even the villains, are all rather likeable or sympathetic in their own way. There are muliple plot lines that eventually converge- some you don't see coming until they're dropped neatly in your lap! Ethical and moral dilemmas abound and the story unfolds in the ways those choices are made. The bad guys do good things and the good guys do bad and in the end everyone pays some sort of price for the choices made. For all that, the story was a little dry and the use of truncated words (ie binos instead of binocululars) added nothing to the story but lots of irritation to the reader.

[Roberta · Rating 5 out of 5]

This started out like the last couple, where I've had a hard time adjusting to the new Winter. The novel has cases to solve, the same blustering and rash MacKenzie whom I really don't care for. Then came Faraday's crises of conscience, for lack of a better term.
The subtlety of motive, the increasing chaos of society, the skewed scales of justice are taking their toll. The soul searching of the last few chapters were what tipped the balance in my rating.

[Wendy Hearder-moan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many threads eventually come together by the end. The unifying theme has to do with individuals taking the law into their own hands. When this happens, the police must pursue the culprits, no matter how sympathetic they are to the person’s actions, and even if, in one extreme case, the outcome is needless anguish and the destruction of a happy family. The reader tends to share Faraday’s gloom.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good read and this is the second time around, I am always amazed this authors abilerty to think up a plot this involved, though must admit that the ending was not what I expected Iwould have thought that the story probably could have run for another 100 pages at least, still have started another in the series so am still hooked.

[rach ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay read. No description of the many characters, I found myself quite lost at time - and even though Faradays son is mentioned quite a few times, he never makes an actual appearance. I find that odd. I gave it three stars, it was alright. Not the best I’ve ever read.

[Gz00 · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Tracey Ready · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow starter but what an ending!!

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I spend time in the company of Detective Inspector Joe Faraday and former Detective Constable Paul Winter the more I enjoy that company. I find myself feeling rather sad to be leaving them when the book has ended. That often happens with series that I enjoy and I do read a lot of series. Beyond Reach was number 10 in the Faraday/Winter series. Fortunately for me, there are still a couple more left.

The thing that makes this particular series so enjoyable for me are the disparate personalities of the two main characters.

Faraday is the buttoned-up committed lifer in the Job (always written with a capital J), i.e, the police. As the series has progressed, we see his frustration growing with the Job and with the direction that his society seems to be taking. Moreover, he longs for a committed relationship with a woman he can love, but it often seems that that is never going to happen. His solace from all his frustrations is Nature, and especially the birds of Nature. Some of the best (for me) passages in the books describe his birding expeditions and list the birds that he sees. They are so meticulous that one gets the idea that Graham Hurley himself must be a birder. As a long-time (now retired) government employee and a birder, I identify a bit with Faraday, especially with his frustrations with his work.

Paul Winter, on the other hand, is a bit of a free spirit, but he was no less committed than Faraday all those years to the Job. He always had a hard time playing strictly by the rules set by his employers. He was more interested in catching the bad guys and putting them away than he was in any rule. What really irritated his superiors was that his way of policing got results. He was one of the most effective coppers they had. But finally his butting heads with those in authority combined with his own frustration with the Job led him to turn in his warrant card and look for another line of work. The irony is that he found it and a lot more satisfaction working for one of the "bad guys" he had spent years trying to incarcerate. Bazza MacKenzie is now supposedly a reformed character, pillar of the community and all that, but is he really?

The story here is how routine follow-the-rule police methods can fail victims in complex circumstances.

A young man is bullied mercilessly for months and is finally murdered by his tormentors, but the police, even though it seems well known who the attackers were, are unable to secure the evidence needed to convict them. They walk free and continue their harassment with a new victim, the young man's mother who had sought justice for her son. Months later, late one night, the leader of the group is run down on the streets and he dies at the scene. The investigation leads the police to the mother of the first victim. Had she given up on the justice system ever providing closure for the tragedy she suffered and decided to take justice into her own hands?

Meantime, Bazza's daughter, a lawyer who looks after the interests of the family business, has become involved in an extramarital affair - with a policeman! Bazza is outraged and puts Winter on the case to sort things. Winter is not pleased with this domestic assignment, but at the same time he seeks to bargain in order to extricate himself from another assignment, one involving overseeing a social service organization set up by his boss.

Faraday, in trouble with his superiors because of his sympathy for the driver of the hit and run car as well as members of the community who take a stand against the neighborhood bullies who were a part of that victim's gang, is given a new assignment to keep him out of the way - working on a cold case involving a rape that happened more than twenty years earlier. He pursues the clues in the case to a surprising and heartbreaking result.

This was an intricately plotted tale that kept the reader on her toes trying to follow all the twists and turns. I actually was able to solve the final mystery well before the end of the book, but I was fascinated to follow along with how Hurley would bring the whole thing to a conclusion. All in all, an engrossing read.

[Seth Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of the Isle of Man Crime Book Club reads. It isn’t one I would have chosen myself for two reasons; I’m not really into police procedurals (books that is, I don’t mind them on TV) and this is number ten in a series featuring the main characters. From what I can gather they seem to follow on. However, I did enjoy it. There were themes I felt I was missing because I haven’t read the previous books I don’t think this mattered – this book was a unit in its own right. It actually felt like a feature length, very gritty, episode of The Bill – from the days when The Bill was good.



The book is set in Portsmouth in 2008. The main non-police characters are the extended family of an ex-gangster turned legitimate business man, named Baz. The first part of the book is taken up with a hit and run. Other themes are the police’s attempts to convict Baz – for any crime by whatever means (although they are sticking to real rather than jumped up charges) . The real aim is to be able to seize his wealth – fired by a form of jealousy along with a genuine desire to show that crime does not pay.

The main cop DCI Faraday is burnt out. He no longer believes in what he is doing. He’s seen too much of the bad side of life to believe in the good side any more. He and ex-DC Winter – who now works for Baz – are the series main characters. The book hangs together well as do the characters. Characters are extreme, yet believable. Except for one thing: a character called Mo Sturrock who gains a larger role as the book progresses. He is a social worker, Winter is trying to recruit for a charity run by Baz. In his first scene Sturrock meets Winter in a Portsmouth pub. He asks the landlady for veggie food as he is a veggie. This is all plausible – he is a caring person and is a vegetarian. The next time we see him eat, a good 150 pages later, he states that he doesn’t want prawns as they are in garlic and his kids hate the smell of garlic. OK, vegetarians don’t eat prawns but some people who eat sea food call themselves vegetarians, so still feasible. On the next page he eats a shoulder of lamb and on the following page he eats a bacon sandwich. Both of these are with Winter, who was with him at the pub when he claimed to be a veggie. I really think Hurley made a slip and forgot that he’d even mentioned the vegetarianism.

There is also a cold case, the book begins with it in the prologue. All the action in the book ends and there are about 60 pages left to go. Faraday has been given the cold case – a rape. You might as well have hung a big light on the culprit and the slight twist. I won’t say anything more in case it does spoil it for you but it is flagged up well to early. It doesn’t add anything to the novel, in fact it detracts from it. The final twists are OK but not worth the extra 60 pages of reading. The book should have ended sooner, but it lacked a suitable resolution. This was a weak point in what was an enjoyable read. If you like procedurals this is worth the read – although I would start at book one.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The language is odd. There are odd words like 'binos' and there is quite a lot of clunky explanation. Too much about birds and I missed his deaf son as he was absent now living in London. I've only read Turnstone before this which was the first in the series and I think it was the deaf angle that most appealed. Perhaps because I was looking for that deaf angle I began to wonder if Graham Hurley was translating from sign language..... Anyway there were some really good things about the book - the main characters are built up really well although I wish I had not guessed the last outcome quite so early as it meant I did not read the last chapters with proper attention.

[Gary Van Cott · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This is the tenth of twelve books in this series and I thought it was the best yet. It has a complex plot with a number of elements (some of which interlock). One thing I have noticed is that Hurley's Faraday like Mankell's Wallender Mankell, Henning has become disillusioned over the state of the society he is trying to police. I am sorry that I have only two books left in the series.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest Faraday and Winter novel. Bazza Mackenzie’s daughter is sleeping with Filth. His grandson is kidnapped. And Willard and Parsons are nipping at his heals. Joe is involved in two investigations in which he has to try to find a clear path through the murky jungle between law and justice. Very much up to Hurley’s high standard.

[Barry Doughty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this because Graham Hurley was recommended and this story's location is in my home town of Portsmouth. I found the Characters to be cardboard and the story disappointing, I may not chance another. Graham has written a great many books but I would suggest to him that quality will sell more than quantity. In other words, he may do better to spend more time thinking than writing.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well up to Graham Hurley's excellent standard in terms of writing, characterisation, etc. but the next morning I woke up wondering why (avoiding spoiler)the brother did not deal with the bullies. And thinking too that the end was a bit over-flagged (because I'd worked it out), although the impending dread for the fate of a character is a clever thing to evoke.

[Yvette · Rating 2 out of 5]

First book I read by Graham Hurley and I'm not convinced. I didn't like the continuous switching POVs with every chapter between DI Faraday and Paul Winter.
I found the atmosphere gritty and unpleasant and some of his character downright flat: Bazz, Stu, Marie... even Joe Faraday seemed two-dimensional.

[Philip Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe FaradafyExcellent

Multiple interwoven stories populated by characters one can believe in.
Shows how justice and the law are very different. Both Joe Faraday and Paul Winter are complex characters in a detailed and credible setting. A really enjoyable and thought provoking book.

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story teller - and makes you think....what if the findings of an investigation will destroy lives, a family unit, a career, etc....is there ever a time when law enforcement officers are allowed to not follow the 'letter of the law'?

[Lorna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one of Graham Hurley's police mystery procedurals. It was fine. I've got one more I am going to tackle to see if the rest of the series (earlier) is worth it. The writing is good, but I do get lost on the dialogue dialect from England. Lots of local slang.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best of this very good series: Faraday and Winter(now over on the dark side)are involved in cases that become unexpectedly intertwined,a very cold case comes to an unexpected conclusion and MacKenzie continues to elude all the cops' efforts to stop his criminal pursuits.

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurley at the top of his form. Faraday, Winter and Baza McKenzie move in and out of an elaborate plot. Excellent

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great mystery in this series. Brillian character development, and the addition of the bird watching by Faraday really adds to the atmosphere.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little disappointing. It started off well but it was clear where the story was going well before the end.

[Dorothy · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unlikable cast of characters in an unlikable plot. Not particularly well written and definitely not to my taste.

[Elizabeth Ann Cyrus · Rating 1 out of 5]

not the best of books the story line was patchy