Keating, HRF -- The Hard Detective (2000)

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In his 60s, Keating began a series about ‘detectives whose human weaknesses affect the work they do’—The Rich, Good, Bad and Soft Detectives.  This is the only one which became part of another series, about Superintendent Harriet Martens.  She begins as a bitch—like Thatcher, she’s one of those masculine women who are tougher than the men.  Unlike the ‘soft’ detective, she doesn’t change or develop (except for her attitude to the psychologist Peter Scholl)—she’s certain that she’s right even to the end of the book.  What Keating does change are the reader’s feelings—by the end of the book, Harriet has earned the reader’s grudging sympathy and respect.

The plot is fairly ordinary and unexciting—a series of policemen murdered according to a pattern established in the Book of Exodus, some by ingenious methods (the second murder is an updated version of that in Rhode’s The Bricklayer’s Arms).  The murderer—a madwoman—is known halfway through.

Swearing rather jarring for Keating—not found in Ghote.

Nick Fuller.