One Under

DCI Bill Slider and his team are working two seemingly unrelated cases. The death of a middle-aged man who threw himself in front of a subway train and the hit and run of a teenage girl on a country road. Slider starts to wonder if there is a link to another case, a cold one involving a dead teenager found in the Thames. The teams investigation will lead them to uncover corruption and deceit that threaten to bring the whole thing down on their heads. Harrod-Eagles strength is her character development. Slider and his team work together like a group of seasoned officers who are able to anticipate each others moves. If you haven’t been reading this series, then you’ve missed some of the best British police procedurals being written today

Realised this was #18 in a series I've never read, although that never made any difference to the story, which was well plotted with great characters and amusing chapter headings. A suicide and a hit and run combine to unravel a major crime. Good police procedural.

Bill Slider's staff is such an appealing group of characters that each new book is like a letter from home. Newcomers to the series won't be lost, though. A man jumps in front of a subway train and a woman's body is found in a ditch. What could the connection be? Finding the link involves London's least fortunate, Britain's most privileged and Slider's refusal to let one overpower the other.

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House for allowing me an advance copy of One Under.
I know that One Under is part of a series but this is the first time I have read Ms Harrod-Eagles' work and I didn't feel that I had missed anything by not reading the previous titles as it works well as a stand alone. It starts with Sergeant Atherton looking over the Transport Police's investigation of a suicide in a Tube station or "one under" as they call it. Meanwhile Chieg Inspector Bill Slider is bored with his paperwork and mundane workload and decides to take a look when he gets a call from another Force about a hit and run victim who lived on his patch. As this is a crime novel all is not as it seems and inexorably he begins to find links between these two events if not an actual crime.
I will admit to being predisposed to liking police procedurals but I think One Under is an excellent read. It has a slightly old fashioned, educated tone but the subject matter is bang up to date and it doesn't shy away from the hard realities of life. I can't really say much more than that without giving away a good part of the plot which, incidentally, the police were very slow to pick up on. The plot, itself, is sufficiently intriguing to keep you turning the pages. It is a straightforward, linear narrative with known facts leading to more information and speculation and finally a denouement. There are no twists you wouldn't expect, unless you count the casual callousness of the perpetrator which is shocking but very realistic.
I liked the characters. The team members seem dedicated and refreshingly normal with none of the stereotypical vices so prevalent in modern crime fiction so it is a pleasure to read about them. Bill Slider, however, is a more complex character. He is dogged and determined in his quest for justice for the victims but this doesn't sit easily in the modern police force where justice has a price, known as budgetary constraints, and can be swept under the carpet if it affects public perception of the force or said budget. This leads to frequent conflict with senior management and the threat of disciplinary action. He doesn't back down but he worries about it and a host of other things. I liked the way Ms Harrod-Eagles portrays the pressures of modern policing and the dilemmas they face trying to provide an adequate service with dwindling resources.
I really enjoyed One Under. I think it covers a lot of ground, social conditions, the youth of today, the insidious nature of power and money and modern policing in a matter of fact manner and is also a good police procedural. All this and a dash of humour to lighten the load it's well worth a read.

When a book keeps me reading past 2 a.m., that has to be one absorbing novel! I absolutely could not fathom putting this book aside and going to bed. Besides, it was a Saturday night and I could sleep in the next day.

This series most definitely falls in the police procedural category because the author allows us to follow along with many officers on newly promoted Detective Chief Inspector Bill Slider's team as they investigate what appears to sadly be a common enough hit and run road death. Except Slider's instinct tells him too many things aren't right about this death beginning with why this young teen would have been on this lonely road far from her normal London neighborhood. Very slowly tiny bits and pieces of the investigation into the death of Kaylee Adams seem to be pointing to the discovery of another teen girl's body found in the river months earlier. On top of this, one of Slider's detectives is looking into a one under, a suicide by train on the underground. Slider can't become the administrative type of officer his new job requires him to be because how can budgets and personnel cuts be more important than investigating a death nobody seems concerned about. Before it's all over Slider is in serious jeopardy of being dismissed from the force.

I have read several other novels in this series and they have all been fascinating reading experiences if you like to be included in all the minute discoveries a police team uncovers while solving a crime. I do like that depth of involvement but it also helps in this series that the characters are so well developed that I enjoy the glimpses the author gives into their personal lives as well. If the author spends too much time on that personal aspect of their characters, it can definitely be a turn-off for me. Cynthia Harrod-Eagles always achieves a very nice balance between the personal and the professional life for characters in her series. It's one of the reasons I am always ready to read more novels about Bill Slider and his team.

I received an e-ARC of this novel through NetGalley.

Review online - see link below

A harrowing storyline brilliantly written. A twisty turny story of horrific child abuse, murder, lies and corruption told sensitively and with a well placed smattering of humour. The character of Porson in particular is a masterstroke

I found this a very compelling novel and very hard to put down .,always a good sign !!I haven't read any previous books in the Bill Slider series but this didn't detract from my enjoyment.The story starts with a suicide ,a man throws himself under a train but this unravels into something much more .I liked the character of Bill Slider ,like a dog with a bone he won't give up on justice even though the odds are against him .I shall be reading the previous books in this series ,thoroughly enjoyed this book .

I see that this book is an incredible 18th book in the series.I haven't read any of the others, but this can be read as a stand alone book, and enjoyed,although having said that I am curious to read more of this series now.I like well written British police books and this was with plenty going on.Slider was like a dog with a bone that wasn't about to let it go, and there were some surprises along the way, good book.

Another easy-reading and enjoyable thriller by this author

It was great to meet up again with newly-appointed DCI Bill Slider and his team, although we are subjected to the funeral and subsequent fall-out of the suicide of one of the team, Colin Hollis.

The plot also starts with a suicide, this time by a seemingly solid businessman, George Peloponnos, choosing a train as his mode of departure, hence the title, “One Under”. At almost the same time, Slider opts to attend the scene of a Road Traffic Accident in the country lanes of Harefield. He immediately finds things do not add up and becomes suspicious that this was not a simple hit-and-run. The victim is fifteen-year-old Kaylee Adams, and when it emerges that her friend, Tyler Vance, was fished out of the Thames earlier in the year, Slider finds his nose definitely twitching.

This is a good, solid thriller, involving some pretty topical subjects, and the more we get into the story, the more we find intrigue, collusion, and even murder, in very high places. Bill Slider needs all of his investigative and bloodhound instincts to bring this case to a conclusion, backed by his boss DS Porson, famous for his misaligned phrases and sayings, like “It’s all cisterns go on this one”, and “his chickens’ll come home to roast”!

Thank you Cynthia Harrod-Eagles for not only giving us a good thriller with big, bold characters but also keeping us amused whilst dealing with some pretty unsavoury subjects.

Sméagol

Slider thinks the suicide by tube train by a public official and the suspected hit and run of a young girl are connected to another death of another young girl. HIs superiors do not want him to prod and poke, particularly when his investigation seems to lead to the door of an important MP and various other VIP's. The closer Slider gets to the truth, the more he is under fire by the higher ups.
It is an ugly onion he is peeling back and it involves sex, murder and pedophiles, not to mention drugs and corruption. Just as he has discovered the truth, he is forced to go on an "extended leave". HIs team stay with the investigation and when they cannot get the evil doers one way, they look for other means to bring them to justice.
Slider and the good cops are an interesting bunch, for whom the reader cannot help but pull. They face unending frustrations as they are shut down and warned off every time they seem to make progress.
Those powers that be who have a vested interest in keeping things hidden are sleazy and slimy and sadly all too believable.
The book is well paced, sufficiently grimy and realistic and very satisfying. If you like good fiction that could be torn from the headlines, you will enjoy this book. Instead of ONE UNDER, I give this two paws up.