Book review: The Narrow Bed

THIS is the latest outing for what must be the most off-beat characters in crime fiction — DC Simon Waterhouse and his wife Sergeant Charlie Zailer.

Sophie Hannah

Hodder & Stoughton, €19.35;

ebook, €9.67

They and the rest of the Culver Valley police team must track down a murderer, code-named Billy Dead Mates because of his habit of killing pairs of friends.

Central to the investigation are spiky, comedian Kim Tribbeck and feminist Sondra Halliday, who fires off vitriolic blogs and wages battle with all and sundry.

However, as usual with poet and award-winning author Sophie Hannah’s other novels, the whodunnit element of the plot is just a tiny fraction of what makes this a superb read.

It’s not just that all the characters, who feature in the TV adaptation Case Sensitive, are beautifully drawn, it’s the subtle humour running through, from first page to unusual signoff.

Deeply satisfying and somehow life- affirming, it leaves you longing for your next fix of Waterhouse and Zailer.