A Song from Dead Lips: the first book in the gritty Breen & Tozer series

A Song from dead Lips takes place in London in the late 1960s when the Beatles were setting the world on fire. A teenager’s naked body is found dumped in an alleyway near the Abbey Road recording studio. Cathal Breen is in charge of the case and he is joined by new recruit Helen Tozer. Between them they eventually make some headway after Breen refuses to accept that the easy solution is necessarily the right one and Tozer follows a couple of seemingly inconsequential leads and hits gold.

I would say that this was an OK book, without being great. Although the plot is not entirely character driven, Breen and Tozer do bring a lot to the party. Breen is a very principled young man with a dogged determination to reach the truth. He is also somewhat accident prone and spends most of the book semi-incapacitated in some way or another. He is unpopular with his peers because he doesn’t make much effort to fit in and he becomes their favourite scapegoat. Tozer, Breen’s sidekick is a quirky character who certainly doesn’t conform to the image of a stereotypical member of the police force in the 1960s. For a start she is a woman (who isn’t therefore allowed to drive a police car) and is the butt of endless, and often cruel, ribbing from many of her colleagues. In addition she is, at times, outspoken, forthright and impetuous which may provide the reader with some amusement, but only serves to further distance herself from her workmates. Breen, who is hardly one of the lads either, sticks up for her which doesn’t help his cause and the two of them become a sort of “odd couple” within the force, looking out for each other in a very intolerant workplace in which they are definitely misfits. Although I couldn’t quite get my head around the character that was Breen, the combined duo do provide an interesting dynamic.

However, as crime novels go I do feel that it misses the mark in some crucial areas. There are no real twists and turns and we are not really given any believable red herrings. For me, the reveal happens too early which means that there is no gripping finale and the latter part of the book is just a long police chase in order to apprehend the criminal who has already been identified. The conclusion is drama (aka violence) over substance, with some unnecessarily gross scenes. Also, I did not think that the characters were described well and, as a result, they were not particularly believable. Finally, the plot was contrived with the political motives being ridiculously far-fetched.

Whilst it is unlikely that I will be actively searching for other books by William Shaw, I would not object if one appeared on my pile of current reading matter. When all’s said and done, it is a reasonable crime novel and if you like that genre then it is probably worth a read.

This was another bookset we won from the Reading Agency: http://readinggroups.org./

This first instalment of a trilogy of crime novels set in 1960's London with detectives Breen and Tozer had most of the reading group members pretty hooked. It was an easy read, and provided several social and political themes that were really interesting to debate. As a result, we didn't focus so much on the murder story, the 'whodunnit' aspect, but more on the novel's depiction of the racism, sexism, and the political and social norms of 1968's London as well as (later on in the novel) the contrast with life in the countryside.

It was so interesting to hear the group members' personal experiences of the times. People agreed that especially sexism was exactly as widespread and normative as the novel describes, with some saying it was usually more subtle, more pervasive, than the novel's dialogue suggested. The younger, female character, Tozer, is pretty blatantly verbally abused within the male-dominated police department, and gives as good as she gets; people remembered a slightly more unspoken (and less comical) enforcement of the social code at the times. We discussed how much attitudes have changed especially with regards to sexism, but also recalled instances of ignorance that are still observed today, for exqample police vans being called "Paddywaggons" even recently, without people realising that this is a remnant of a slight to Irish people. We discussed examples of sexism and people's personal observations then and now - one group member's father told her never to learn to type, because he feared that people would too quickly assume and expect her to take on secretarial duties. A member cited a -contemporary- report by people in the medical profession that stated that tea-making is still first and foremost expected from women within a group. But we also marvelled at the changes between then and now - people in the group vividly remembered TV programmes such as the Black Minstrel Show, and comedians such as Jim Davidson and Bernhard Manning being mainstream entertainment. We commented that the novel is set even before the Equal Pay Act came into force. People remembered social changes being driven by things like new magazines and TV programmes, eg. "The Bill", but also said that things like "The Bill" could also change people's attitudes to be more sexist rather than less, depicting women as much more "easy" than they had previously been allowed to be (or to be portrayed).

The racism experienced by the Irish detective Breen, and by the African family in the novel, was shocking in its accepted normality, and we agreed with the author on the depiction, and we enjoyed how strongly the author brought all of these aspects to the novel. Some members did remark that the dialogue wasn't always satisfying - a lot of characters and some places appear and disappear quickly in the plot, without contributing much atmosphere or interest, like the pathologist in the novel, and the Bagel cafe that Breen frequents. Was this planned by the author from the start, as he set up his trilogy? Some of the group members had gone straight on and read the second novel in the series, "A House of Knives", and did report that some characters and situations are indeed picked back up and treated to a bit more exposition. However, it did leave the first novel a bit frustrating. Also, the dialogue felt to some to be a bit more stuck in the 50's - again, was that deliberate, to show that in a lot of ways 1968 didn't touch the majority of England so much, but concentrated on a minority bubble of 20-somethings in London (of which Tozer is a part, but Breen is not)?

A member commented that Breen is a great new serial detective, as he's just a normal bloke, not an alcoholic, schizophrenic, or burdened with any other extraordinary character traits. We liked his quiet character, a bit apart from the rest of the blokes, trying to deal wiht his own normal-life tragedies. We enjoyed his partner Tozer a lot as well, as an incredibly fearless, outspoken female character who dares to be very direct with Breen and her superiors. We appreciated that she is a fresh breeze, a counterpoint to a musty and backwards system and way of thinking, but it did make her character act in some very stark, brazen ways (driving off in the car without informing her partner, for example) that seemed a bit improbable. But overall we really enjoyed the novel for its characters, its plot, but mostly the depiction of 1968 London society.
By Cordula

The pace of the book reflects the era in which it is set - 1968. Life is slower and although the book has an interesting start it soon begins to plod along and there are many sections which are dragged out needlessly. Strangely the nanny character at the start of the book doesn't appear again. There is an insight into 1960's police investigation techniques which are very basic and it's a wonder any criminals were caught at all. Scene of crime experts and DNA were obviously not yet available. Policewomen are treated as inferior and get very poor treatment; it seems incredible that they were not allowed to drive the police cars. A lot of the characters do slightly strange things and I think the ending is far fetched. There are 2 followup novels with the main police characters - DS Breen and WPC Tozer and it might be interesting to see how their relationship develops.

Jill McDonald (Bookmarks - Grange-over-Sands)

I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. Occasionally I think the author was making politcal points and pointing out the obvious such as how attitudes to working women have changed in the last 50 years. But the plot was good - I didn't anticipate the ending which was very well written and I've learnt a bit about Biafra.

I would recommend this book and I would read more of the authors work.

Read more...

St Regulus Reading Group.

When I started reading this book I was disappointed that it was set in the 60's. There currently seems to be a lot of crime drama set in the pre-hi tech era, before mobile phones and DNA testing for example. I see it as a plot device so the detective can plod through the story with the reader at a snails pace. I prefer modern stories and think it's probably a lot more challenging for an author to write a contemporary crime drama.

However having said all that I really enjoyed this book and couldn't put it down. Occasionally I think the author was making politcal points and pointing out the obvious such as how attitudes to working women have changed in the last 50 years. But the plot was good - I didn't anticipate the ending which was very well written and I've learnt a bit about Biafra.

I would recommend this book and I would read more of the authors work.