The Monk by Tim Sullivan

I would like to thank Anne from Random Things Tours and Aries Fiction for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Aries Fiction

Published – Out Now

Price – £20 hardback £0.99 Kindle eBook

To find a murderer, you need a motive . . .

THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he's used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality.

THE QUESTION
The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic's past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don't know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk?

THE PAST
Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son - he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all...

Is the crime procedural designed best around the mystery or the lead detective. A main character with an interesting personality like Holmes, Rebus, Columbo and so many more pull our attention. A really good locked room mystery, bizarre murder can also grab us and make us try to stretch our grey cells and solve it. I am very pleased to say The Monk by Tim Sullivan delivers both and also manages to have a lead character who avoids some of the more common issues with tropes regards having autistic leads.

A gruesome discovery is discovered in a roadside ditch. A man beaten to death tied to a chair and in a monk’s habit. But the investigation primarily lef by DS George Cross finds this is not some bizarre costume and that one of the local Benedictine Order has been murdered. The investigation has to try and find who Brother Dominic really is and why someone would have wanted to kill him. For DS Cross a man with autism spectrum disorder finding the routine and rhythm of the monastery an unusual parallel with his own way of life; which is now being disrupted by the arrival of his mother in his life after forty years. Both are mysteries the detective needs to get to the heart of.

I really enjoyed this crime novel. The mystery is a really unusual one. We get the instinctive human reaction to a person of faith and one we find was well known for kindness and generosity being killed. That provokes a reaction in the reader that justice is needed. It also raises the question how do you solve a Monk’s murder? As the investigation extends, we have the life he has at a monastery and a monk with an unusual media profile and expertise emerges. But the other question is who was Brother Dominic before he chose this life? Its in some ways then an interesting cold case and as we discover the victim of this crime may have people who have been looking for him for a long time. Sullivan has created a really compelling mystery we want to unravel.

For that we have DS George Cross. This is my first venture into this series and Sullivan very nibly explains the series primise, key characters and also some key ppoints of development that have recently impacted George. There is always a danger with characters with autism being designed to be ‘special’ with unexplainable almost mystic powers that allow things to be solved that ‘normal’ people could not see. I was pleased Cross though is a much more complicated and human stereotype figure than that. This is a character who received a diagnosis late in life; chose his career much earlier due to a need for getting justice and balances a tenacious desire to explore all aspects of a case with how his external behaviour can be misread by strangers and far less now the team he works with. Sullivan in third person narration shows us both George’s external reaction which can appear brusque and unfeeling against what George himself is trying to do or perhaps can’t quite express. How, certain everyday situations always will make him unsettled and also how he has a mischievous sense of humour we learn to like and most of he is also just a very good trained investigator. One standout part of the story is the interrogation of suspects. George always prepares all the evidence and has a trained skill to get to the truth. These scenes are great example of cat and mouse as dialogue with the detective and suspect chasing each other with words and looking for a away in or way to deflect. Rather than chase scenes or fights these tended to be the tensest parts of the novel. My one resonation is about halfway we can tell which of the possible plots is the more likely to be behind the murder, but the end does reveal a few more hurdles the crime team need to sort out before we get a satisfying resolution.

Sullivan has also made the story breathe with the wider cast and in this case the unusual situation of a monastery. A life of routine, quiet and avoiding distraction has both attractions and for the committed atheist George a conflict but the more interesting sub-plot story interesting for me is forty-something George having to deal with the re-appearance of his estranged mother back in his life. What we have is less theatrical fights and accusations but grown up characters all working around one another. George is indeed disquieted by this (as I think anyone would be) but he and his family have to find a new balance. It was refreshingly subtle character development which will I suspect continue to be explored in later books.  I also really liked how the wider cast is shown to have learned to adapt and understand George rather than simply feel is forever doing things wrong

I was very swept up into his story. I really enjoyed Sullivan’s skills as a mystery writer and also their grasp of character development and avoiding the more annoying autistic tropes many dramas and films tend to focus on. I may have already picked up the first book in the series to meet George Cross again already. Definitely recommended for thriller fans!