Peter Turnbull used his certificate in social work in Glasgow for years before returning to Yorkshire, where he was born, to take up full-time writing. His crime fiction series includes one set in Yorkshire, one set in London, and one set in Glasgow. His Glasgow books focus on the fictional P Division of the Glasgow Police, describing an interesting ensemble cast of hard-working cops on all three shifts.
His knowledge of the socially unfortunate and the circumstance that keep them from moving ahead shows in the seventh book of the series And Did Murder Him (St. Martins Press, August 1991) in which what appears to be an open-and-shut case of one druggie killing another turns out to be something else. The body of Eddie Wroe was found early one Sunday morning in an alley with a bloody knife nearby. The knife conveniently had a clear fingerprint of Shane Dodemaide, a young man already known to the police who promptly arrested him for the killing. But when the medical examiner determines the body was moved after death, the question arose as to why was the murder weapon moved too?
P Division has a clearly sketched staff: the aging sergeant who is living on a pittance because of a pending divorce. The detectivewho can’t stop drinking once he starts. The up-and-coming young female constable. The perceptive detective-inspector in charge of the station. And other cases come the division’s way while they are working on the homicide, adding credibility to the overall sense of a police procedural. The case of the two quite elderly sisters mugged for four pounds while on their way home from church again displays Turnbull’s social worker instincts.
Turnbull keeps the story moving with enough obfuscation to hide the outcome until the last couple of chapters. Brisk narrative, realistic depiction of a neighborhood police station, and deeply human characters. Very nice. For fans of police procedurals and readers interested in Scottish crime fiction.
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Kirkus, July 1, 1991
Another of the author’s workmanlike procedurals dealing mostly with Glasgow’s grungy underclass of petty thieves and drug addicts. Among them here are Shane Dodemaide and Eddie Wroe, who share squatters’ quarters in a rotting, abandoned building—as well as the favors of an upper-class addict named Veronica. Now, Eddie has been found stabbed to death in an alleyway, a knife with Shane’s fingerprints lying nearby. Aging Detective Ray Sussock (Condition Purple, 1989) is sure that Shane is their killer. But Detective-Inspector Fabian Donoghue finds some crucial flaws in the case against him and concentrates on the disappearance of Veronica—a rewarding avenue, as it turns out. Along the way, some minor cases are handily solved; there are also gritty, sometimes pathetic characters, plus a full complement of likable policemen, in a steadily interesting story. Sturdy fare for procedural fans.