Falling More Slowly

Inspector Liam McLusky #1

by Peter Helton

DI Liam McLusky, freshly transferred from Southampton to Bristol and just recovered from an injury in the line of duty, has no time to settle in before catching a major case. Everyday objects that have been transformed into explosive devices are being left across Bristol, maiming or killing those who pick them up.
 
McLusky must figure out who the killer is, while navigating the fraught internal politics of his new post. Meanwhile, an ex-partner moves into the city to study—and keep tabs on him.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, British Literature

288 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

PETER HELTON was born in Germany but moved to London in 1982 where he worked as a translator for film and TV before discovering the attractions of the West Country.

He completed a Fine Arts Degree at UWE and has exhibited in London, Cornwall and Bath. At present he divides his time between his painting studio and writing in the study of a minute cottage near Bath in the company of his cat, Asbo.

Series:
* Chris Honeysett
* Inspector Liam McLusky

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good mystery series about a hot mess of a DI who's new to Bristol. I must say, the author makes Bristol sound like hell on earth. O.O

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't familiar with this author before reading this book, which is a first in a series. The main character is DI Liam McClusky, recently transferred and promoted to a new post in a new town after a serious accident in his last job. Thrown a bit off-center by all the change, we meet McClusky as he somewhat clumsily is trying to gain his footing. No sooner does he show up at headquarters for his first day of work, a rather comical domestic situation requires immediate intervention and without hesitating, he dives into the fray. This is followed quickly by an explosion at a nearby park and again, McClusky is front and center of the action. More bombings quickly follow, each more serious than the last, and they realize they've a killer on their hands. With no apparent rhyme or reason behind the explosions, it's up to McClusky and his new team to stop it before more innocent people are killed.

I would have given this story five stars had there been a bit more to differentiate McClusky from some of his literary contemporaries. (And his propensity to have women jumping in and out of his bed in such short order was a bit hard to believe.) But there's enough in here - crisp writing, sly and witty dialogue, engaging characters and a good plot - to welcome another book in this series. If you enjoy writers such as Ian Rankin or Stuart MacBride, there's a good chance you'd like Peter Helton as well.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

DI McLusky gets transferred to a new police station and is immediately thrown into a case involving a person hiding explosives hidden in a pen, a compact, a beer can, an Easter egg and lord knows what else and placing them all over the town for innocent people to find. This leads to deaths, mutilation and fear amongst the people. I thought the ending was summed up too fast and felt it was not finished completely. Also, McLusky has a lot to learn about women-he takes what he can get and hurts the one woman that he appears to be attracted to by letting her go without explanation.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

FALLING MORE SLOWLY is the first book in this new series by Peter Helton. Detective Inspector Liam McLusky is beginning his new assignment in a new place after recovering from injuries sustained when a suspect knocked him down and ran over him. His reputation precedes him – arrogant, loner, thinks he knows more than anyone. McLusky wouldn’t argue with the description.

When he arrives at Albany Street Station, he meets his sergeant, James, “Jane”, Austin and his shown into his office, the first he has ever had. When the phone rings, he answers quickly, perhaps too quickly. The constable on the other end is reporting a domestic situation, the call all police officers dread the most. More police officers have been attacked at a domestic than on any other call. One partner is fighting with the other partner. Things escalate. One calls the police. When the police arrive, they try to restore some calm to the atmosphere. Both partners resent the intrusion of the police and, together, turn on the people they had brought into the brawl.

McLusky and Austin arrive to find some injured constables and four destroyed cars, including two squad cars. The husband is driving his construction digger around his home, determined to destroy anything that gets in his way. He is determined to knock down his house, with his wife in it. Their marriage is ending. They have been living in his home but she wants it as part of the divorce settlement. He’d rather knock it down that give in, an example of why the police hate domestics. McLusky determines that the only way he can get to Mr. Spranger is by using the department car to distract him. The department is now down three cars. “Spranger got out and stood for a while staring at it all, trying to take it in. Half of hie house had collapsed. Water cascaded where the digger had bitten through the bathroom plumbing and the spare bedroom had now slid into the kitchen.” Mr. Spranger went off quietly with two police officers.

Before McLusky has a chance to return to the police station, he and Austin hear the sounds of an explosion near a city landmark. They arrive at the park to find a young man seriously injured and a woman barely alive. A fire is raging in what is left of a wooden shelter, a small, three-sided building, built on a cement block. The shelter was so small and the fire so big that the police realize a bomb a bomb had been set there. Who? How? Why?

It is this incident from which the story is built. Bombs go off across the city, some big, some small, all dangerous and all a threat to the lives of anyone nearby. The police can’t discern a pattern. Some of the bombs are designed to do as much structural damage as possible. Others are in full view, waiting to detonate when touched by any passerby. The people of the city are panicked. How can anyone defend against the random actions of a mentally unstable killer?

As time goes by, the police, especially McLusky, are increasingly pressured to find the killer. But how can that be done when there is no apparent motive?

Inspector McLusky grows on the reader. He is a police officer with all the necessary instincts to successfully solve the puzzle that all crimes are. Sergeant Austin is the perfect sidekick; he can anticipate his boss’s needs and, when necessary, he can read his mind. This is a promising beginning for a series.

Peter Helton is the author of three book in the Chris Honeysett series, SLIM CHANCE, HEADCASE, and RAINSTONE FALL. Honeysett is a detective/artist who lives in Bath, a great setting for any story.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

PROTAGONIST: DI Liam McLusky
SETTING: Bristol, UK
SERIES: Debut
RATING: 4.25

DI Liam McLusky has just been transferred from Southampton to Bristol, after recovering from a serious injury and the dissolution of a long-term relationship. Bristol seems a bit inhospitable to him, particularly the nasty traffic jams that seem to permanently clog the roads. As might be expected, not everyone on his new team is delighted to see him take a vacant spot which could have been filled internally. Fortunately for him, he establishes instant rapport with DS James Austin (fondly referred to as “Jane”). Unfortunately, his boss, Superintendent Denkhaus, is completely unimpressed with the newest member of the team. However, when an explosive device goes off in a local park, McLusky is assigned the case. Everyone else has a lot on their plate, including one of the other DIs, Kat Fairfield, who is trying to find the “Mobile Muggers”.

Things escalate rapidly as the bomber stuffs explosive material into common everyday objects and leaves them to be found by innocent bystanders. One woman is seriously injured when she picks up and opens a compact; other bombs are planted in a box of chocolates, a mobile phone, and so on, and people are killed. It doesn’t seem that the devices are directed at any one individual; instead, the bomber seems to be holding some kind of general grudge which makes his motivation hard to determine and future targets impossible to predict.

As McLusky and Austin attempt to find the bomber, they stumble across other criminal activities and inadvertently solve some of the other cases that are being investigated by their colleagues. Denkhaus puts the pressure on them, but it’s a lucky break that allows them to identify the perpetrator. I didn’t find that to be overly fortuitous; I’m sure that kind of thing happens a lot in real life.

McLusky is a very engaging character, and there’s a lot of humor sprinkled into the narrative, particularly in his interactions with Dr. Louise Rennie, a possible romantic interest. This relationship had potential, but Helton never followed through on its possibilities. In fact, all of the love interest threads never really fully played out. His former lover appears at his doorstep, and the whole scenario is dealt with in a rather puzzling way. I was also confounded by how the book concluded – it ended abruptly without tying up some necessary loose ends.

I actually enjoyed FALLING MORE SLOWLY quite a bit. The repartee between the characters was wonderful. McLusky was someone who I enjoyed getting to know, and Austin was the perfect partner for him. FALLING is the first in a new series; I look forward to the second. Since that will likely be published at least a year from now, I think I’ll check out Helton’s Chris Honeysett series in the meantime.

[Jmm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fans of the British mystery can celebrate a new inspector on the block with Falling More Slowly, the first title in a new series from Peter Helton starring Detective Inspector Liam McLusky, newly transferred to Bristol CID after his recovery from near-fatal injuries suffered on the job at his previous post in Southampton. As McLusky himself notes, “New city, new job, new pack of ciggies, extra mild. New first-floor flat, rented.” He’s ready to start over in his new “patch,” where his reputation as “Unpredictable” and “a bad team player” has preceded him.

McLusky, however, is barely inside Bristol’s Albany Road station for a nine o’clock meeting with his new superintendent when, instead, he tears off with Detective Sergeant “Jane” Austin to answer a domestic disturbance call. On the scene there he manages to destroy the new car he’s just been issued. DS Austin, however, manages to commandeer a ride for them back to the station. But, as they try to navigate a long shortcut around Bristol’s traffic, they hear an explosion and see smoke rising from Brandon Hill. A bomb has just exploded under a park bench. McLusky and his team arrive on the scene, followed shortly by Superintendent Denkhaus, who makes it very clear to his new DI just who is in charge. He then assigns the bombing case to McLusky, who must now prove he’s worth his title as the bomber escalates his activity and endangers more people.

Falling More Slowly displays all the credentials needed for a new police procedural series: fully drawn, complex characters; interesting plot; and a realistic setting. McClusky will be especially appealing to fans of author Graham Hurley’s DI Joe Farraday; or to fans of DI Jack Frost, a character created by author R. D. Winger and made popular by the British television series, A Touch of Frost. The next title in the series, Four Below, is due out in January 2012.

[Kathleen Hagen]

Falling More Slowly, by Peter Helton, b-plus, Narrated by David Thorpe, Produced by Isis Publishing, downloaded from audible.com.

DI Liam McLusky, freshly transferred from Southampton to Bristol, and just recovered from having been injured in the line of duty, has no time to settle in before
he is assigned a large case. Someone is making homemade bombs attached to very simple objects, a beer can, a compact, a pen, etc. These items are left lying around in plain sight. Someone eventually picks them up, and they explode, maiming or killing the victims. There seems to be no rime or reason to who is a victim. The perpetrator seems not to be avenging himself on specific victims, but on the whole world. McCloskey comes to his new job referred to by Southampton as “not a team player.” He pretty much does what he pleases in terms of investigating cases. He has a new city, new colleagues, a new superintendent, and ladies wanting to start a relationship with him. This is a good police procedural that is probably the beginning of a series because we were left up in the air at the end.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a new DI in town..who isn't sure he wants to be there. Liam McLusky has been transferred to Bristol in circumstances which are alluded to but left unspecified. He was injured. He is Not a Happy Man.

Liam seems like an alright kind of guy, his character isn't fleshed out more then him being a somewhat introverted, maverick Matey McBloke. There are a few sitcomesque scenes about McLusky's romantic life which strain credulity.

I've never been to Bristol. I think the author has been there and hated it. What's the story there, Mr. Helton?

McLusky is after a person or persons who is secreting bombs in everyday objects around the city. Compelling stuff, but the pace felt sluggish and unenthusiastic. I found the brief portrait of the antagonist and his situation the most moving and credulous part of this book. I'd be interested to seeif and how McLusky is fleshed out in the rest of this series but I wasn't engaged enough to care.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first pages of this procedural are fall-about funny as Detective Inspector Liam McLusky, convinced he’s right whether he is or not, blunders into his new post at Bristol. He wrecks a squad car while settling a domestic dispute, then jiggers the report to say he was protecting the poor wife. He smokes and drinks too much, is impatient with coworkers, makes a hash of his love life. Then a bomb detonates in a park, and McLusky has a murderous loon to track. A gang of cycle-riding muggers savages pedestrians. McLusky’s mood darkens, and so does the novel. Helton’s rich, tactile prose conveys the taste of tobacco and Guinness and the look of dying sunlight, but it moves at a pace some may find ponderous. The novel’s pleasures are offbeat characters, sly gags, and polished wordplay, not the pulse and tension that drive so much crime fiction.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

First in a series. British Detective Inspector Liam McLusky starts a new assignment in Bristol, and is assigned to what turns out to be a series of bombings. There's no clear motive or pattern to the bombings, and the victims seem random as well. Story sagged about two thirds of the way through (at least one too many bombings). OK characters, pretty clearly an establishing story: Lots of rain, prickly boss and colleagues, mediocre romantic life, half-hearted attempts to quit smoking. McLusky is going to be smart, but not brilliant, without superhero powers. It'll be worth reading the next book to see where the author takes him.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspector Liam McCluskey, new on the job in a new city (Bristol), having recovered from injuries in the line of duty, gets a case on his first day involving a serial bomber. His force also faces a group of skateboard robbers and a couple of civil disobedience movements that aim at creating traffic deadlocks. McCluskey is sort of the standard inspector, but Helton's writing is sharp. McCluskey's very first case, a domestic violence dispute involving heavy building equipment, is a tremendous opening.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Number 1 in the Inspector Liam McLusky series. Police procedural set in Bristol, UK where initiative is more likely to get one in trouble than not, budget cuts are a way of life, public opinion is skeptical at best, and creative writing is a necessary job skill. Funny story, or as funny as a story can be that deals with crime, murder, and bodily injury. Excellent narration by David Thorpe.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book I've read by Helton, and I liked the fact that the DCI wasn't London based but was nonetheless based in a big city. The somewhat expected bad-boy detective—but I enjoyed being introduced to the character—was not too predictable (yet, perhaps). For me, the best detective stories focus on character rather than procedure, so I look forward to reading more from Helton.

[Herzog · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this in search of a new series, but was profoundly disappointed. McClusky is not a terribly interesting character. The plot was filled with extraneous and unfulfilling side stories. The "villain" was cobbled virtually out of thin air.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's dedicated to me!

[MaryAnn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read, with new character DI Liam McClusky. Need to find more by this author~

[Caroline Ingvaldsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

First in a new series by an author notable for character-driven not-so-cozy crime set in Bath this is a gritty police procedural with excellent characterization and an action-packed plot.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liam Mclusky

[Heather Quance · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good police procedural set in the West Country. Makes excellent use of the setting, has a wonderful ear for dialogue, and very very funny. A quick, fun read.

[Roxane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read of an awesome book...