The Kings of London

Excellent British police procedural with a well drawn cast of charectors quick and easy read

In The Kings of London, William Shaw rejoins DS Cathal “Paddy” Breen and policewoman Helen Tozer as they investigate a series of deaths joined by fire. Breen is a bit adrift after his father’s death, after caring for him for so long and he’s still feeling the fallout after forcing a fellow officer out after discovering he was on the take. Someone is leaving threatening messages in his inbox and even worse in his desk drawers, but Breen is determined to stay quiet and do his job, even if there are those that would prefer to see him fired, or worse. Tozer is two weeks away from heading back to her family’s farm to help care for her father, and Breen finds himself conflicted about this. He thinks she’s a good cop, but she keeps insisting it’s not the job for her, and even though they have a bit of a romantic entanglement, Tozer seems to be much more casual about it than Breen. So, it’s with some heavy weight that Breen attempts to get to the bottom of the death of a man that appears to have been mutilated before an attempt to burn down the evidence, after finding another burned body, assumed to be a derelict. Unfortunately, further investigation begins to lead to people in high places (the mutilated man turns out to be the free spirited son of a prominent government official), but Breen’s concern is with the dead, and finding out the truth, at any cost.

Paddy Breen is one of the most fascinating creations to pop up in crime fiction in a long time. He’s young, in his early thirties, but he lives in a time of great change, and he’s right on the cusp of tradition and being accepting of radical ideas being put forth by the free love movement just gaining traction in late 60s London. One of the best scenes in the book is set at the very real ‘Alchemical Wedding’ at the Royal Albert Hall, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono famously put on a demonstration of “bagism” which involved wearing a bag over their entire bodies, claiming that by living in a bag, a person couldn’t be judged by skin color , gender, age, etc. The sights and sounds of the Alchemical Wedding are almost more than Breen can take, and his shock is simultaneously amusing and very human. While he’s open minded in some ways, he’s also very traditional in others, and it makes for a fascinating combination.

The Kings of London, as with She’s Leaving Home, works on two levels: as procedural, and as an exploration of a hugely transitional time in London, when there was very real tension brewing between police and civilians, and dangerous drug use was on the rise. Breen’s puzzlement in the face of the bohemian, free love lifestyle (a communal living situation figures largely in the story) is in contrast to Tozer’s more go-with-the flow approach, and she proves indispensable in that aspect of the investigation. Shaw’s sense of time and place is impeccable, and a taste of London’s burgeoning modern art scene adds even more flavor. He imbues Breen with an enduring sense of melancholy as he struggles with the demands of his job and his personal life. He’s not perfect, but I like that about him, and it’s really his imperfections, and also his compassion (which can sometimes work against him), that makes him the compelling figure that he is. If you love crime fiction set amongst very real historical events and you haven’t discovered this series, now’s the perfect time.

I did enjoy this classic British police procedural. It is a genre which, done well, is thoroughly entertaining. I was particularly impressed by the author's pitch perfect capture of the zeitgeist of 1968 Britain and enjoyed his use of Paddy as the slightly bemused onlooker. I really hope to hear more of this policeman in the future.

She’s Leaving Home was the first in a proposed trilogy from British author William Shaw. Set in the 60s, She’s Leaving Home introduced CID CS Cathal (“Paddy” to his workmates) Breen and Temporary Detective (“Probationer,”) Helen Tozer. Breen, an outsider in D Division, and Tozer, a female copper who wants to cross gender boundaries and work in the Murder Squad, make an interesting team. In She’s Leaving Home, Breen and Tozer investigate the murder of a teenage girl found dead under a mattress. While the crime under investigation in this first novel was engaging, the book’s strength came from the crackling dynamic between Tozer and Breen. This is the Swinging 60s and Breen is feeling left behind and out of touch with the new subversive elements of society whereas Tozer, subjected to continual harassment from her male colleagues, opens doors that close in Breen’s face.

She’s Leaving Home is a solid introduction to the Breen-Tozer team, and so here we have the second in the series The Kings of London. Once again, there’s an absence of 60s nostalgia, but this is late ’68, and in this world of shifting morality and changing attitudes, both Breen and Tozer find themselves, once again, butting up against laws and shifting attitudes towards abortion, sexuality, and narcotics.

Breen investigates the death of Francis Pugh, living on a trust fund, a man who played the field with an endless stream of married women, and who collected art. He’s found dead in his home moments before it, and any possible evidence, explodes into a fire. Francis was the son of a Welsh politician, and so pressure’s on for Breen to solve the case, but also to not make noise when seeking witnesses.

She’s Leaving Home took this reader straight back into the 60s–a strange time–a time when meaningful social change occurred but was somehow tragically derailed by the drug culture. In The Kings of London, the cultural references were occasionally, just occasionally, more like name dropping rather than bricks in the solid wall of genuine atmosphere. The story has a strong 60s feel, and it’s mostly ugly: Tozer’s boss doesn’t hesitate to grope her, Tozer lives in segregated housing, Breen must suffer the bother of feeding the electric meter, people fire up cigarettes casually in restaurants, the now vanished rag-and-bone men (immortalized by Steptoe and Son) make an appearance, and a disabled child is ordered to leave the library by an employee. It’s these well-worked in references that build and create atmosphere, placing us effectively in the attitudes and expectations of the Age. The more obvious references–especially to the rockstars, added too much name-dropping tinsel and felt forced.

The strength of She’s Leaving Home is absolutely in the dynamic between Tozer and Breen. There’s a sexual attraction from Breen towards Tozer, but she, a child of the 60s has an entirely different attitude towards relationships. In The Kings of London, Tozer, who’s decided to leave the force and plans to return to the family farm in Devon, is somewhat sidelined, but every time she appears in the book, that central dynamic resurfaces. And what’s so interesting here is that even though just a few years separate Breen and Tozer, they are clearly the products of a different age. Unfortunately for Breen, he’s caught between floors; he doesn’t fit with the Establishment and its values, but neither can he adjust to this new world of hippies, Hare Krishna, Free Love, and the Psychedelic 60s.

Breen is the main focus here, and we see his character shift as he’s forced to either allow the Establishment to roll over his career or to take steps to manipulate his future. There’s some unfinished business at the end of the novel, but even more intriguingly we see Breen developing and, as he fights for his career, wondering if this is how corruption begins.

He was fifteen minutes early for the 11:52 at Paddington. He stood on the platform end. He was back at work. He was a policeman again. He had something to do. But he was also a little appalled at himself. First Tarpey, now Creamer. This was the way it started. A slow corruption.

Many of the characters first seen in She’s Leaving Home continue their stories in this second volume. The unpopular “old-school policeman,” Inspector Bailey, who never seems to connect with D Division, is still as out of touch as ever, Division secretary Marilyn still has a thing for Breen, and the ferrety Jones still can’t quite align himself with impending fatherhood. Given that one on-going thread/mystery in this novel concerns Breen’s arch-enemy, bent, but popular copper Sergeant Prosser, to get the full impact of The Kings of London, She’s Leaving Home should be read first. Fundamentally this is a novel about change–at the fore, of course, is the dynamic, constant shift of the 60s. New Scotland Yard has relocated to posh new digs and the Drug Squad is the place for the ambitious to make their careers.

The Drug Squad was still recruiting. Carmichael wanted Breen to follow him into it. But they were a loud team, brash and confident. Always getting in the papers. Not only were they fighting a whole new type of criminal, but the ones they were arresting were usually far more glamorous than the usual CID fare.

Underneath that main emphasis of the shifting 60s, William Shaw creates characters who must face changes in their lives, whether they seek those changes or not. Tozer is very much a New Woman–a woman who rejects the traditional path of marriage and children. Breen sees Inspector Bailey as a good man but largely ineffectual and fossiled in the attitudes of the past. The big questions remaining at the novel’s conclusion: Can Breen change with the times? Are Breen’s aggressive career moves simply self-defense or is he on a slippery moral slope?

Rock on volume 3….