The Last Dance: A Detective Miller case - the first new Billingham series in 20 years

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He has mixed with some pretty scary characters, people in rival crime families, and one of the murder victims is a son from one. Neither likes their boss, a man who was promoted above Miller while he was away, and Miller refers to him as “wankspangle” (among other things).

Declan Millar is a right pain to work with, seemingly taking nothing seriously, flouting authority and deliberately taking things the wrong way to wind up his senior colleagues. This is the first book of his that I've read, and I will be eagerly awaiting the second installment. It must be quite scary, writing a brand new series when you have a much loved series character waiting in the wings, judging, biding their time. I kept thinking of the quote by Fran Lebowitz while I read this book, “A book is not supposed to be a mirror.Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Alex appears to him now and then and has conversations with him, but as with the good ‘ghost’ stories I’ve read recently, nothing she says actually tells him anything he doesn’t already know. Lies After Death is a crime debut for KJ Dando, someone who has had various jobs and has served in the British Army in the Balkans and Iraq.

While his conversation is full of banter, jokes, sarcasm, and taking the mickey out of people, he is not a shallow man, and we get the sense that Alex, who had her own wild years before they met, understood that. The ending bred deep curiosity in me about just who caused Miller to have the deep grief due to the loss of his beloved wife. For those of us who enjoy that mix of mystery and humour that the Ruth Galloway series delivered, this could well be the next go-to series. A former banker, Brother Dominic swapped mammon for God some 15 years earlier and lived a quiet life devoting himself to beekeeping, bookbinding and worship. A captivating combination of humour, emotion, mystery and tension, The Last Dance is everything you could wish for in a new detective series.It makes her fascinating to read about and she is very much the straight partner to Miller's comedic turn. Well, that and an audience of readers who love said judgy character and who may be wondering if the same magic can be captured with a new-cop-on-the-scene.

Both seem to have put the gritty crime and dark humour I loved second place to a slap stick kind of dad joke humour.I was thrilled to learn that a new series was on the way, and I already know it is going to be one of my all-time favourites. he enjoyed rocking up to play his small but significant part in making the ceremonial county of Lancashire, and this bit of it in particular, a slightly less horrible place to be. This is the 2nd time I have finished a book by a favourite author who has written a new main character.