Book Review

Race to the Kill by Helen Cadbury

It will be a bittersweet moment for family and friends of York-based author Helen Cadbury, who died in June, when her crime novel Race to the Kill is launched at York Explore on Tuesday.

Earlier this year the author was writing on her own blog about making her final edits in bed and her excitement at seeing the jacket cover.

The book is the third in her series about Doncaster-based police officer Sean Denton. Her first, To Catch a Rabbit, is the focus of York Explore's Big City Read programme with 5,000 free copies being given to the public. This debut was set in York and Doncaster and has themes of immigration, trafficking, the exploitation of women and social issues.

Race to the Kill continues some of these themes. It begins during a long night shift when PC Sean Denton and his partner PC Gavin Wentworth are approached by a dishevelled-looking woman desperate that they follow her.

She leads them to the old Chasebridge High School where they find the dead body of a Syrian refugee. The investigation which points to the neighbouring greyhound stadium finds Denton caught up in a world of immigration, drugs and sexual abuse, and one in which his private life becomes increasingly entwined.

There is a gripping plot that also ties in a sexual assault case and a missing girl, however the characters drive the story, leading us through third person points of view from Denton, his half-sister Chloe, who he has recently met for the first time, and Sarah who works at the seedy dog stadium and gives us the inside track on happenings there.

When Denton is promoted from a uniformed PC to join the detectives there was a tug of sadness as he is set up for more novels that will now, never be written. He is dogged and determined and in Cadbury's assured hands he is likeable and bright and we care as he ventures deeper into dangerous territory.

Cadbury had deeply held convictions about social justice through her Quaker values that guided her writing and personal endeavours. In her fiction these translate into compelling stories that explore these themes, but are about people, and twist and turn to knit seamlessly together by the end.

A Race to the Kill is an authentic and assured swansong.

The launch of Race to the Kill is at York Explore on Tuesday at 6.30pm. There are still a few free tickets available that should be booked online at https://www.exploreyork.org.uk/event/book-launch-of-race-to-the-kill-sean-denton-3/ or in person at the library.

Catherine Turnbull