The Price of Darkness, a police procedural set in Portsmouth England, has 2 strands. One focuses on two murders investigated by D.I. Joe Faraday (a businessman and junior government official are shot), the other focuses on a former policeman (Paul Winter, who was booted off the force when he became a bit of a boozer), and his relationship with the local drugs kingpin, Baz MacKenzie.

Faraday and Winter are the 2 extremes of modern policing. Winter is the old school cop who hangs around in bars to pick up the "word on the street," while Faraday is more modern, able to delegate and build the alliances needed in modern policing.

This book is genuinely a decent read. I lived in Portsmouth for 12 years and he caught the place and people pretty well. I'd've given the story four or five stars if I could have believed the Faraday storyline more. The are no seeming links between the 2 murders at the start of the book, but as the story develops you can just see the link developing a mile off.

That's what let the book down for me. You know the murders must be linked (either to each other or the Winter storyline), and by about two-thirds of the way through, you don't need to be a genius to work out how they're linked. That's why I've only given it 3 stars.