Our critic’s must-read review of a KILLER career

Geoffrey’s retirement concludes an exemplary 20 year reviewing career

HAVING reviewed crime and thrillers for the Daily Mail for almost 20 years I have quietly decided to stop.

It’s been an honour and a privilege to celebrate the work of so many wonderful authors over those years, but, at the age of 81, I think the time has come to call it a day.

So what was my favourite crime novel? There are so many that I can’t pick just one.

I am a huge fan of Michael Connelly, who gave the world the unforgettable Harry Bosch, a hard-bitten LA detective who retired and yet kept working.

I am equally in awe of James Lee Burke and his ex-detective Dave Robicheaux – the Bayous of Louisiana seep out of every page.

As for the Brits, I think Elly Griffiths is superb, and so, of course, are Ann Cleeves and Val McDermid, but my top pick has to be Ian Rankin, who gave us John Rebus in the cobbled streets of Edinburgh. Mind you, M. W. Craven is rapidly becoming almost as good.

When it comes to thrillers, again, there are so many. I was delighted to watch the rise of Mick Herron and his Slow Horses – spies put out to grass – led by the majestic Jackson Lamb and brought to life on television by the incomparable Gary Oldman.

I loved the first book in the series and have gone on admiring them ever since.

The spy novels of David McCloskey and Charles Cumming are nearly as good. I have also watched the burgeoning career of C. J. Tudor, who has gone from strength to strength and become Britain’s female Stephen King. And talking of Stephen King, his Mr Mercedes and its sequels were magnificent.

Stephen King’s Mr Mercedes and its sequels were magnificent

So what makes a great crime novel or thriller? You can never be sure, but a memorable protagonist and an unusual location both help.

For me, the central quality is a hero or heroine you simply cannot forget and Mike Craven’s Cumbria-based Washington Poe sticks in the mind.

Then add to that a setting that wraps itself around you – be it the Scilly Isles or the Peak District. Ian Fleming’s locations always burnished Bond.

One other thing – if you can see a bandwagon it is too late to get on it. If I never read another mystery set on an isolated island or villa which hosts a deadly reunion of old school friends, I will not be sad.

S o are any books overrated? Well, I hate to say it but Robert Galbraith’s Cormoran Strike is.

The first book J. K. Rowling wrote under that nom-de-plume was terrific. It was spare, intriguing and fresh.

But as the series progressed the books grew ever fatter until they are now almost 1,000 pages.

I bow to no one in my admiration for Rowling’s work, but Strike has got out of hand. There is also a bit of that in the later works of Richard Osman, wonderful at the start, but since? The same fate has also befallen James Patterson – so much success has led to collaborations that haven’t all worked.

As for names for the future, G. R. Halliday’s Inverness-based detective and single mother Di Monica Kennedy is certainly one to watch in crime, as is Jo Murray in thrillers, whose courtroom drama debut, Dissection Of A Murder, was outstanding.

The most difficult job of any reviewer is choosing the titles. On any given week I got between 20 and 30 books. Each one of them with a part of the author’s soul contained between the covers. I know how hard it is to write a book, I’ve done a few myself, and it often broke my heart not to be able to cover one. But with so many books competing for only three spaces a fortnight it just wasn’t possible.

Over the years I’ve been sent around 8,000 books and I apologise to the authors I did not manage to fit in. I’m so sorry, but please do not give up. You never should. I shall miss you.

■ Read Geoffrey’s final review here. He is handing the baton to John Williams, whose first reviews will appear on October 2.