Colours of Death: Sergeant Thomas' Casebook

Colours of Death is a collection of 9 police procedural short fiction stories set in Australia. Released 1st July 2019, written by Robert New, it's 244 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

I enjoy intelligently written procedurals and this is a collection of 9 short and satisfying examples of the craft. The main character, Detective Sergeant Brad Thomas, is refreshingly normal, intelligent and well spoken, in a healthy relationship with his fiancée, Amy. The stories are loosely tied together by a theme of colour, the abnormal bruising of victims (Black Death), the physical appearance of the perpetrator (Fear the Red Man), and on through the rest of the colour spectrum.

All of the stories are well written and competently plotted and paced. The characters are finely drawn with believable internal motivations. The writing style is simple and easy to read with some interestingly complex technical plot devices.

Written and set in Australia, the language and spelling are Antipodean, but the meanings are perfectly understandable in context. The language is fairly clean, with a very few instances of cursing, also used in context. There is no sexual content, and one plot which revolves around a self inflicted gunshot wound (not written in a triggering manner).

For Kindle Unlimited subscribers; this title, as well as the rest of the author's oeuvre is available in the KU subscription to borrow and download for free.

Enjoyable read. Four stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.