Cal Innes, the roguish, trouble-prone young British P.I. and star of three previous Ray Banks novels, is back in BEAST OF BURDEN. That is, what’s left of him after being beaten, shot, left for dead on a desert roadside and blown-up by a car bomb. Still, though a shadow of his former self, he manages to get himself neck-deep in trouble.
His face contorted and walking with a stick as the results of a drug-induced stroke, Innes hardly has time to morn the suicide of his brother when he’s contacted by his old nemesis, Manchester crime lord Morris Tiernan, whose only son, Mo, has gone missing. Ironically, Innes is the only person his enemy trusts to find him.
Innes, still operating his tiny investigations office out of the back of his friend Paulo’s gym for young rehabilitating criminals, knows the assignment won’t be easy. Tiernan long ago kicked his son out of the family business, and most of the people who know Mo are reluctant to talk about him. The money, however, is very much needed, so Innes takes the case.
Meanwhile, Detective Sgt. Iain “Donkey” Donkin has also learned about the missing Mo. He immediately suspects Innes, long a thorn in the hot-headed detective’s side. It isn’t long before Donkin interrogates — that is, intimidates — everyone Innes knows. And when Mo is found beaten and dead in a slum just outside of Manchester, Donkin does anything — authorized or not — to pin the murder on Innes.
Banks presents the story in chapters of first-person narration shifting between Innes and Donkin. This sort of structure is often disorienting and doomed, but Banks pulls it off mostly by refusing to revisit previously described events, moving the story forward with each narration shift. Then, too, his uncanny ear for dialogue and vigorous prose is as amazingly convincing as the short-fused Donkin as he is with the slightly more introspective and far more familiar Innes.
The theme of family and its often ambiguous value dominates most of the novel. But as events progress in the investigation of Mo Tiernan’s murder, friendship and loyalty themes emerge and take over.
BEAST OF BURDEN is by far the strongest, saddest and, not surprisingly, most unforgettable title in Banks’ series. American readers, as is often the case with the author’s work, might find it difficult making their way through the many British pop-culture references, slang, ever-present expletives and idioms (like Donkin constantly referring to himself in the plural). But the rewards are always worth the extra effort.
To truly enjoy the full effect of this latest entry, readers are urged to begin with SATURDAY’S CHILD and then move through SUCKER PUNCH and NO MORE HEROES, if they have not done so already.
If not, please do. It often takes a while for his work to appear on this side of the pond. A damned shame, since Ray Banks is one of the most talented young crime fiction authors working and reshaping the field today. —Alan Cranis
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Yep, great book and a fitting conclusion.