Essex crime with Blackwater by James Henry

'You can take the boy out of Essex, but you can't take Essex out of the boy'.

New crime thriller 'Blackwater' by James Henry sets up a cracking new series, set in Colchester,  Essex in the 1980s, and featuring DI Nick Lowry. I was intrigued when this book arrived through the door as, living in Essex my whole life and remembering the 80s with nostalgic fondness, what was not to like, as well as being a bit bored of every detective series seemingly set in Scotland or Brighton it was time for a change. The story here focuses on a complicated web of bodies washed up, army cover ups, corruption and missing persons, all linked to drugs shipments and the landscape and population of the blackwaters.

Setting the book in that era was a great idea, no mobiles, Internet or other modern distractions to take the reader from the story. Some of my favourite parts of the book are those that show policing as it used to be, before 9/11 and terrorism, along with in politically correct means of getting criminals to talk and actual doing the job rather than paperwork, in one scene 'the police airwaves crackled' with 'the general public and its daily grind', 'a granny arguing with Woolworths staff over stealing a ballpoint; truanting school kids vandalising a phone box', just enough of the past to make reading this book so much more enjoyable than modern detective crime.

The characters who here are almost fully formed and totally believable, despite the tendency with crime series to waste the first novel setting up relationships and complex issues to be revealed in later books. This novel has moments of humour, just enough mystery and intrigue to keep crime fans happy and a real sense of place, along with a cracking side story concerning Lowry and his wife Jaqui, a younger woman and set up from the start as not all her husband thinks she is in their marriage, entwining both of them closer to the investigation than he would like to admit.

Blackwater certainly worked for me and I'd highly recommend it when it is released by riverrun on 14 July 2016 in the UK along with others in the series which I will eagerly keep an eye out for.