Ashes by Now

4.5 out of 5 for this one, and that's only because I'll never give a book a perfect score (yet).Meet Nick Sharman, the character whom most, if not all of Timlin's books are based around. He is your classic anti-hero. Used to be a detective but was thrown out for behaviour unbecoming. Divorced, he has an ex-wife whom he hates and a daughter who he loves. He drinks too much. He uses various narcotics. He spends most of his time in places you wouldn't want to be in with people you wouldn't want to be there with. He plays with guns and isn't shy about altering evidence and covering peoples tracks. He regards the law as more of a hinderance than a help. You'll like him.In this tale, he becomes involved in a case that was supposedly dead and buried twelve years ago, when he first became a Detective. He didn't want to become involved, but when the body count gets off the mark and he meets some faces from the past that he'd rather not have done, he no longer has any choice in the matter.What follows is a good, tight story. No extraneous sub-plots are present, which means that the writing doesn't ramble, always remaining succint and to the point. The only disadvantage of this is that it produces a fairly short story (219 pages) which seems to be over all too soon. It's almost so good that you won't want to put the book down before the end of the story.They tried to televise some of the Sharman stories; they were okay but the books are better as there is only so much that you can show on the TV.And finally, the piece de resistance, the tale is set in London and Sharman is British. If only there were more books like this...