Double Jeopardy
by Martin Stratford
Robert Hale, 2010
Just a Half, Thanks
When not a Tommy Lee Jones film or the second round of a popular game show, "Double Jeopardy" is a legal defense that forbids a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime. Martin Stratford's debut novel Double Jeopardy has zero to do with any of those definitions, except as the $200.00 answer to "Name of a Brit crime tale set in the fictional northern City of Havenchester."
Martin Stratford begins the action with an attempted assassination of Detective Sergeant Julie Cooper, recently back from a long stretch undercover among London's drug lords and now having a nice Italian meal with her wealthy antique-dealing aunt. Two gun-toting thugs blast Julie twice in the chest and once in the head, and blow away dear Auntie Jo as well. A mysterious criminal mastermind down a dark, nearby alley chuckles wickedly to himself, mu-ha-ha-ha!, and the challenge is on for readers to figure out his identity before the end of page 222.
Twenty-five year old brunette supercopper that she is, Julie survives and within six weeks is on a personal one-woman mission to find out who tried to whack her. Havenchester, it turns out, is full of low-lifes, gangsters and pimps. There's even a brother-and-sister hitman team who live on a boat and are into heavy rock music. Julie herself is a singleton whose interests include scuba diving and sailing.
Deciding that she needs assistance from professionals who are up-to-date on the city's crime, Julie makes an appointment with a hunky local private investigator named Alec Tanner. Immediate sparks crackle as Alec gazes into Julie's lovely face, which I found odd as she had recently been shot in the forehead.
(Blazing, huge bullet scars generally detract from a lady's charms, or at least prompt a reaction of "cor, blimey, girl, someone shot you in the head!" No one throughout Martin Stratford's novel, however, passes any comment.)
Anyway, here in Chapter Three, sledge-hammer blows chisel out OBLIGATORY LOVE INTEREST in marble letters eighteen feet high. Forget the waitress typographically changing into a waiter in Chapter One. The heavy-fisted writing and unoriginality of these two detectives hooking up put my chances of finishing this book in jeopardy.
Like Julie and Alec, I determined to see this one through. The pair collect a list of all Havenchester's hitmen-for-hire who work in pairs, and begin to pursue them. Making accusations against employees of vicious mob bosses like Vernon Bridger and Harry Milton soon brings enemies to Julie and Alec's door. In one of my favorite scenes, those enemies include four terrifying clones of George W. Bush. There is some serious ass-kickery (Alec learned how to streetfight from his uncle, and Julie is proficient in a Thai martial art called Ki Thi which an infinite number of George W. Bushes would find incomprehensible. After an Internet search, I find it mysterious myself.)
Meanwhile there is a subplot about a gangster's moll trying to escape, a few interesting villains (some naked in an alley!), and a friendly local DCI called "Ancient" Mariner. Julie is also sorting out the flat and friends that she inherited from her poor auntie. Some actually may have clues that help solve the mystery, which progresses along in an amusing fashion. A number of the big twists are visible a hundred pages in advance, but some turns very definitely set up were never taken. Martin Stratford tells an entertaining tale.
Hi Hale! I preferred the KT McCaffrey and Geraldine McMenamin, though
Critical Mick says: "Ploughman's lunch and half of bitter" is Julie and Alec's lunch of choice. Double Jeopardy is decent fare with a taste of England that will be enjoyed by many. Me, I find a half pint of warm beer can't compare to the full-on flash of luxury meals and pure cocaine that J.J. Connolly recently shared with readers in Layer Cake.
Double Jeopardy is far better than that axe-grinding Nemesis of the Dead.
Lesley Mason reviewed Double Jeopardy for The Book Bag. Her favorite line from the novel: "it was like being growled at by a hedgehog."
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