The narrow stairs creaked a little, but they were carpeted now. It hardly seemed like the same house. The chilly bareness of the disused top floor had gone, replaced by the smell of someone else’s children, like cheese rinds and warm flowers.

When you pick up books by unfamiliar authors based on online deals, as I do, you read a lot of pretty amateurish prose. As you may have noticed, I do a fair number of negative reviews here.

But now and then you find a gem. John Barlow’s Right to Kill is a superior novel, worthy to stand proudly in any genre.

Detective Sergeant Joe Romano is a cop in Leeds, North Yorkshire. Once a promising officer, he got his career stalled during a stint in Interpol, and now he’s back in Leeds, reduced to missing persons cases, no promotions in sight.

When a mother calls in to report her son, Craig Shaw, missing, no one is very concerned. First of all, Craig is legally an adult. Secondly, he’s a known drug dealer, no loss to anybody but his distraught mother. But Joe has principles about these things. He investigates seriously.

When Craig turns up dead, bizarrely murdered by a pencil in the eye, the cops have to take it seriously. But there’s still not much enthusiasm. The working theory, as we’re repeatedly reminded, is that some people just don’t rate the effort. The formula is 1-66 – that one person out of every 66 causes all the trouble in the world, and we’re better off without them.

But Joe can’t get Craig’s mother’s grief out of his mind. And when a second pencil murder is discovered, the media start paying attention. Too much attention, from Joe’s point of view, as his picture goes viral on Whatsapp in an embarrassing context. Soon he’s off the case, on the edge of dismissal.

And still he won’t give up. He’s no super-cop. He makes mistakes and pays for them. And in the end he’ll pay a high personal price for imperfect justice.

John Barlow is an excellent writer, a genuine wordsmith. It’s a delight to read his prose. On top of that he’s very good with characters, finding the hearts of even the worst offenders.

I had some problems with the story on a personal level, though it could have been much worse (and would have been in the hands of a less professional author). Social issues come up constantly, and we deal with some right-wing groups and characters. Although the author does a pretty good job humanizing people he disagrees with, he can’t shake the liberal (I assume he’s a liberal) conviction that all conservatives must be racists. He does his best to be fair to the racists, though.

Some statements surprised me along the way, though they probably shouldn’t have. He speaks of the famous English grooming gangs as if they were no big deal – something only a racist would worry about. Jordan Peterson is spoken of as obviously some kind of fascist. Joe finds it hard to comprehend a statement that there are things we’re not allowed to say anymore. (Maybe he’s just too young to remember.)

But he has clearly made an effort to play fair. And mostly it works.

Highly recommended. Cautions for language and stuff.