Trust – Mike Bullen

Greg Beavis and Dan Sinclair are mates, and rivals, with both working as sales reps for the same IT company in London. They both have long term partners and families. Dan is married to Sarah with a teenage son, Russell; Greg is not married to Amanda, but their commitment is demonstrated in the form of two young daughters.

It all starts to go wrong when Greg and Dan attend a two day conference in Birmingham. The men get talking to two attractive young women, Liz and Lynda, and on the last night as drinks flow in the bar, things get flirty and beyond.

On their return to the family fold, things change. There is incriminating evidence in Greg’s bag. And Dan’s renewed sexual vigour, while welcomed by Sarah, is suspicious.

Events unfold; deception and misunderstandings multiply. The partners, destabilised by suspicion, become prey to temptation and proposition. Revenge is considered. Even adolescent Russell and long-gone Liz and Lynda, and their partners, become tangled in the webs of deceit. Trust is in scant supply.

The prose is sharp and witty, and the plot complexities are well handled and easy to follow. Bullen has a nice line in one-liners and penchant for the ironic use of idiomatic expressions. Unsurprisingly, given Bullen is the creator of the Cold Feet TV series, the book has the same knowing – ‘this is adult life’ – vibe.

A good entertaining read.

The St James’ Park Murders – Frank Demain

Every other Saturday, August to May, Sarah Stephenson sees her husband, George, off to Hexham station to get a train to Newcastle for the match at St James’ Park. Except he doesn’t attend the game, he listens to the radio commentary while in bed with a lady he knows only as Jenny.

Sarah knows nothing of this arrangement, but there again George knows nothing of her own simultaneous fortnightly routine that involves an intimate visit from neighbour and shopkeeper, Tony Raine.

The cosy, mutually oblivious arrangement ends when after a particularly energetic afternoon with Jenny, George returns home to find the police outside his house with the news that his wife is dead, believed murdered,

On the case is DI Elspeth Sanderson, newly transferred to the area and still getting to grips with her new team. Step by step they gather evidence, strip away false alibis, uncover motives, and inevitably crack the case, despite distractions that involve Elspeth’s rivalry with a local DI and a long distance on/off relationship with a policeman in the Gambia where her previous case took her.

The plot holds together with enough twists and turns to maintain interest, and the characters are well drawn and distinctive. An enjoyable introduction to the DI Sanderson series of novels