Review: The Last Refuge

The Last Refuge. Chris Knopf. Detective mystery.

This is a gem. All the more so because it is an unexpected find. And a new detective who is an amateur but with a real and attractively flawed character.

Sam Acquillo is a retired engineer with a set of character difficulties which he medicates mostly with Absolut vodka. We know from the beginning, though, that his heart is not at the bottom of the bottle, and he'd be a good guy to have as a neighbour.

Thing is, his neighbour dies. Not that the old lady was a particularly good neighbour herself, but Sam had inherited his late father's looking out for her. And something about the way he found her didn't fit right in his engineering mind.

Let's not worry about the story or the plot, both of which are superbly crafted. Almost as well put together as the dialogue and the descriptive passages.

The test of a book's character is whether you feel you get to know them. Without having to be told everything. And knowing that you don't know it all, at all.

I got to know a chunk about Sam Acquilo, bit by bit. Quickly into the story I felt comfortable with him. And therefore lived his story as it developed.

A gem. And more Sam Acquilo stories are promised. Pity this is Knopf's first from the series and there's no back catalogue to delve into.

But I'll be watching the bookshelves.

Brian Byrne.