Surprisingly shocking

Although we have heard the story - and in a sense always known it; the existence of police spies in activist groups is assumed to be true as a basic security princple - to read the first hand accounts of the way a selection of women were targetted and gaslit by undercover cops and the detail of their emotional involvement in a fake person was quite shocking.

The persoal become highly political, and in the context of what has happened since in terms of the drift into an authoritarian state pretty unsettling. 

Getting Better

As they go on the Lydmouth series seems to be getting better. Whilst still firmly in the crime genre this one starts to show flashes of wider interest. Some minor anachronisms I thought (but can't now remember exactly what - more in the way the characters think than in technical details. 

Outstanding

Probably the best novel of the year and the decade at least. Only on reading the authours thankk-you's at the end did I realise what she had based the story of DC on. (Because I've never read the earlier DC)

The first person past continuous account of his life and the community he lives in is very believable, interesting, engrossing. Even things that you have no experience of are understandable - the logic of the situation is impeccable.

The larger context - the illegal drug and prescription opiod pandemic in rural communities is highly topical. Ecological and political elements are there in the background as context but not in your face - the focus is totally on Demon's experience and story.

A sympathetic view of a world which we only know as the butt of jokes and cliches.