‘The Business of Dying’ is author Simon Kernick’s first novel. It was recommended to my wife by her father and has been sitting waiting for me to pick up for quite while (I was told I probably wouldn’t like it that much but should give it a try…). Basically, this is an example of what I would call an easy-reader. It’s an action/police/crime thriller in which the main character is both criminal and crime investigator (he’s a policeman who moonlights as a hit-man). So, there are a couple of story threads that are wound together as he investigates one set of crimes and then comes under the spotlight himself for his own crimes. Perhaps inevitably, the two story-lines end up merging together as his desperate run for freedom leads him to cast caution to the wind to pursue those that he is chasing.
I’ll certainly read more of Kernick’s books (there are several waiting for me in the house already) but I won’t expect the depth of, say, Henning Mankell. Based on this first example, I think Kernick is the sort of book I would take away as a holiday read.
Tim O'Hare 