Being given an ARC of a book you’ve been waiting ages to read, by an author you value as a fine writer and friend is both a joy and a little difficult.
Like being tossed the keys to their newly acquired top of the range sports car and hearing ‘take it for a spin.
A book in a series is also hard to share, as it needs to be faithful to what has gone before and readers often know more than the writer can remember(thank goodness for those journals), and when it is the third book in a declared trilogy MP Wright knows he has to raise his game.
Joseph Ellington, known more often than not as JT is a mild mannered man most blokes would welcome as a mate. That is if it was not the mid sixties in Bristol; at this time he is less than a human being to some for he is black. Part of an influx from the Caribbean, JT has left Barbados to settle in the UK. Although not highly educated, he is a man of honour and served Britain’s interests well as a policeman on his home island. He left amid personal grief and a sense of betrayal and carries these memories and loss with him.
Unable to work due to discrimination and by his on standards of right and wrong he ended up as a private investigator. Books 1 and 2 demonstrate how well that is going.
In The Restless Coffins we have the status quo turned on its head and we follow JT on a journey home to bury his sister.
His cousin Victor, Vic, left Bristol some 18 months earlier, escaping the law and unhappy associates; it is he who sends JT the news and the means to return home via New York to settle affairs. Bernice his closest relative has died and as with the culture and mysticism of his people many thoughts fill his head and share his dreams. So he prepares to leave and begin the difficult trip wanting answers and a sense of closure.
The author has paced this novel so well. No need for clever flashbacks and different points of view; the story is beautifully told through Ellington in the first person. This works so well due to our affinity and empathy for him. His honesty and humble bearing on all his interactions and considerations for others.
The narration therefore allows for expressive and expansive concepts and descriptions of the changing and new environment JT takes on his journey.
Casual racism confronts him at every turn in the UK as he travels to London. “One look into his rancorous eyes told me the whole story of what he truly felt about a man like me.” Direct and violent hatred due to his colour as he seeks to get a drink. Experiences he has, that at that time were not open to black people as he takes a transatlantic flight ordinary black workers could not afford.
The book then touches on Harlem and another train trip to New Orleans.
At every turn the magic, wonder and beauty are wonderfully shared in the writer’s dialogue and descriptions, imagine generated similes “The early red sun had just broken above the tree line like a Lucifer match being scratched across the sky.” and poetic reflections about the weather from hot and oppressive to wet and consuming.
Above all the story has a string of characters wrapped around it like a neckless of beautiful pearls, hard and tough, with the voice of that district or the Deep South. The patois seems spot on and is the voice of its day and time. Indeed when a white person tries to pass off the N word, you and the text catches its breath. There is no offence here and it isn’t just trying to be a hip/gangster writer either it is so carefully done and changes to suit the age, location and people involved in these conversations.
Furthermore for me it shows how much JT feels an alien in both New York and The Big Easy.
The pace quickens in the final quarter of the novel as JT arrives home. The journey there and the things he has learned mean he will never be the same man. Can his cousin save him? Is revenge sweet or does it cost a man if it is spilled unwisely?
This is a life changing journey for our protagonist; he is a product of his upbringing, his carefree childhood, his kith and kin. There is closure here as befits a trilogy part III but more besides JT is changed, how will he behave from here? The fourth book beckons.
This journey home is a terrific work of fiction; such a pleasure to share with a character you have come to enjoy and root for. But as with any literature, aside from the quality of writing it is the ideas, memories, forgotten faith, superstition and dreams that mean there is so much more to this novel than a holiday read.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Black & White Publishing for an advance copy of Restless Coffins, the third novel to feature Bristol based enquiry agent Joseph "JT" Ellington.

Joseph is shocked when a telegram from his elusive, criminal cousin, Vic, tell him his sister is dead and asks him to return to Barbados to settle her affairs. Little does he know what this entails or how closely Vic is involved but with Vic pulling the strings his trip home involves detours to New York and New Orleans.

I thoroughly enjoyed Restless Coffins which is an unusual mixture of lyrical descriptions, complicated plotting and serious violence with a high body count.

The novel is narrated by Joseph in the first person. There are pros and cons to this approach but on the whole it works well. It makes it easy for the reader to understand and identify with Joseph, a black man in 1960s England and America where racism was alive and accepted as the norm. Mr Wright does an excellent job of describing Joseph's frustration at the accepted assumption of white superiority by white people, especially the harsh realities of American race laws and segregation. I also found an early scene of his experiences in a pub sad but realistic. The downside is that the reader only sees the other characters through Joseph's eyes, especially the fascinating Vic.

I love the descriptions in the novel from the heat of Barbados to poverty of New York. Mr Wright has produced an atmospheric novel where the reader can visualise the settings and Joseph's feelings.

The plot is complicated with the Machiavellian Vic pulling the strings, initially from afar, but latterly in person. I found myself getting lost in some of his machinations, most of which seem unnecessarily convoluted and read as obvious plot devices, but the basic premise of Shakespearian revenge is obvious. The pacing of the novel is good as Joseph learns bit by bit the reasoning behind all his adventures, although misadventures is probably a better word.

The level of violence in the novel is high so it's not for the faint hearted. It is interesting to see the Black Panthers make an appearance and mention of their aim to win equality through violence. There is a certain irony, therefore, in the events that unfold.

Restless Coffins is an absorbing read which I have no hesitation in recommending.