#BlogTour: A Death In Custody by T. S. Clayton @matadorbooks @RandomTTours #ADeathInCustody #TSClayton #RandomThingsTours

Book Synopsis:

Brixton in the late 1990s. Delroy Brown, a young black man being held in police custody, dies in a confrontation in his cell with a police officer.

The officer claims to have acted in self-defence but fails to give a satisfactory explanation for being in the dead man’s cell.

Chief Inspector Elliott conducts an investigation into Delroy’s death, but his enquiries are obstructed by a lack of co-operation from police officers, the activities of a corrupt private investigator – and the legal system itself.

Alison French, a young journalist, Neeta Patel, Delroy’s family’s solicitor, and Ben Weekes, a black youth worker, join forces to try and find out the truth about Delroy’s death, but find themselves in growing danger, as they are drawn into a murky world of violent criminals and police informants.

My Review:

A Death In Custody is an intriguing, absorbing read that will stay with me.

Firstly I’ll admit to not knowing much about the law so I found all the legal aspects of this book very interesting. The author clearly has some experience of the UK legal system and I enjoyed finding out how the law works. It was especially interesting finding out how limited the law is in some ways and how a crime is judged not just by what happened but also by the impact it makes.

The author does a great job setting the scene and I often felt like I was right there watching everything unfold like I was a fly on the wall. I thought the book had a good pace to it and even in the slower bits I found I didn’t mind as I was enjoying hanging out with the characters. There were a few twists that kept me guessing and I soon found myself invested in the story, having to keep reading to find out how it ends.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publisher for my copy of this book. If you want a legal thriller with a difference then I highly recommend this book.

About The Author:

T. S. Clayton is a retired solicitor. In the 1990s he practised criminal law in and around Brixton, South London, working for the Crown Prosecution Service as a Crown Prosecutor, and later Senior Crown Prosecutor, before becoming a freelance defence advocate.