Raymond is a posh Nigerian-Brit with Oxford pedigree, Ryan is a white underclass foul-mouthed chav brought up in an Oxford trailer park by an alcoholic (Oxford area has some of the worst income inequality in the UK). The plot was suitably twisty but not absurd but I most enjoyed the characters of the two DI Wilkins and can see them both helping each other to grow and develop as the series progresses. Also it's clear that his Dad is some kind of super bright young man so it makes sense that his son might be a little above average. Having two fast tracked Detective Inspectors named R Wilkins is unusual but their partnering is inspired. The plot kept me interested (it involves not only murder, but also the theft of a rare, valuable book) and I laughed out loud a number of times.

With many thanks to Quercus Books via NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this very entertaining novel. His professional partner, DI Ray Wilkins, of affluent Nigerian-London heritage, is an impeccably groomed, smooth-talking graduate of Balliol College, Oxford. As a young Detective Inspector, he’s lost none of his disgust with privileged elites – or his objectionable manners. On the face of it, it sounds like a collection of clichés of the genre strung together: the chalk-and-cheese partners, the rebellious working-class detective in a posh environment and so on. Om inte annat för att jag gav Anne Holt en trea häromsistens - det här är bättre läsning, även om det tar emot att säga som gammalt Holt-fan).

The writing is sharp and full of atmospheric, beautiful images like this simile describing "the grey edge of the city, sprawling in the distance like a blanket left out in the rain," and "He had a face like an old gardening glove, seamed and cracked.

Meet DI Ryan Wilkins, slouching onto the Oxford crime scene in ill-fitting tracksuit trousers, mistaken for a teenage offender with that scowl on his youthful face, and just about to put his anger management problems on display. The magazine ran a regular feature: a glamour model posing in an exciting state of undress in the very last setting you would expect to find her. You can see Ryan hanging around town in his trackie bottoms and Loop jacket and plaid baseball cap, the epitome of the chav.The author does an excellent job of creating two well defined detectives, who each have their own issues to deal with and who complement each other well. And too many pages at the end are taken up by a rather breathless rush through tying up the loose ends. This town and gown divide is echoed in the two lead detectives, the 30 year old DI Ray Wilkins, a well dressed Balliol College man, from a wealthy Nigerian background, a high flyer, and the more troubled 27 year old DI Ryan Wilkins, who despises the world of privilege, growing up in a Oxford trailer park, a single dad with an adorable young son, Ryan. Mason creates a pair of detectives that managed to catch my interest, particularly Ryan, and he gives a great sense of location in Oxford, the starkly different sides, with the University and the poverty and unrest to be found at the other end of the social strata.

Perhaps a second outing of the duo, with Ryan kicked out of the police force, is a more plausible endeavor. Simon Mason has pursued parallel careers as a publisher and an author, whose YA crime novels Running Girl , Kid Got Shot and Hey, Sherlock! The two sides of Oxford are well portrayed, there is some pretty good characterisation and Ryan’s relationship with his 2-year-old son is especially well painted, I think.To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Oxford in general contains a high proportion of powerfully placed people operating quietly away from the glare of publicity. Their first murder investigation occurs at St Barnabas's College in the Provos’s office and the contrasting Wilkins’ style causes much grief and makes for a riveting read. So I wondered what might happen if his first case involved the famously pompous Provost of Barnabas Hall. He's definitely the centre of the books and it's notable that the sheer force of classism directed against him is shown here as more powerful than wealthy privileged Raymond's experience of racism, from which class privilege provides some kind of shield.

it was enhanced by deft prose and the detective duo of social misfit Ryan Wilkins and the Balliol-educated Ray Wilkins.The plot is engaging though had a few holes and improbabilities, not least the idea that a British police force would be remotely bothered that one of its officers was violent, xenophobic or misogynist.