And more than anything the police officers, honest and bent, creative and useless. Well, Graham Hurley does that with an amazing ease. Great plot, vivid characters, all you need in one book. Firstly, I admit I'm not a "bird" person and I did struggle with the first couple of the novels in this series. Too many birds, too much "family background" not enough plot. However, the third in the series, "Angels Passing" and this one have really gripped me.
The writing is very good and the characters have become more rounded, real people. I really couldn't put this one down and am about to purchase the next couple in the series. Hurley's books always take a while to get going. But I always enjoy his books. This is one of my favorite British police procedural series. Faraday is a determined investigator who demands truth and justice. As a widower, he hasn't had an easy time of raising his deaf son by himself, but he's done a good job-- even though both his job and his son have had him hiking out to commune with the birds he loves so much.
Some detectives hit the bottle, others listen to jazz or opera, Faraday goes bird watching. Joe's son is pretty much independent at this stage and even helps during the investigation.
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- Happy Days!
- Happy Days (DI Joe Faraday 12).
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I've enjoyed watching him grow up during this series. The case is an absolute beast of a maze. Coughlin went out of his way to be hated, and his decades of practice stood him in good stead. Faraday has his hands full weeding through all the suspects, and his efforts at piecing together the dead man's history are hampered by a brick wall called the Royal Navy.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Feb 29, Mark Sennen rated it it was amazing. So, here we are. At the end of the line. They say to travel is always better than to arrive and that is nowhere more true than in this instance because the destination can bring only sadness. A very different genre, but an equally compelling story arc. As a crime writer myself I would be happy to produce something a tenth as good as this body of work. In So, here we are. In my view the series has been about humanity.
Not a surface-thin political vision wrapped up in soundbites and glossy brochures, but a deep-down sense of what is right and wrong, of what it means to be human, to live and learn, to change. But as the story evolves, book-by-book we can see Faraday losing it, becoming ineffectual against the tide of awfulness sweeping the country, his actions make no difference.
Thank goodness the books concluded before the riots of Whatever would Faraday have made of them? Now, after the final book, I look back and conclude that Winter was the more human of the two, the character whose moral trajectory took him on a journey where he discovered not only the nature of good and evil, but where he found himself and learnt the hard way - the only way - the difference between right and wrong. In the end Winter is the character we can learn from, for despite his failings, he achieved, in his own way, redemption.
And anyway, forgetting all the waffle above, if you had to choose which one to sit down and have a drink with It is something akin to going down the local tennis club to find your opponent is Roger Federer, or going out on your morning run and having Usain Bolt jog along beside you. What else to say?
Review - HAPPY DAYS, Graham Hurley
How was it for you? Mar 08, Karen rated it it was amazing Shelves: It was somewhat bitter-sweet to know that on reading this book, Joe Faraday is dead, and another series over. Which I confess is a lot of the reason for the delay. The Faraday and Winter series has always been a slow burner in this household, quick to obtain, slow to savour, the characters at the heart of the books — Faraday, Paul Winter and Bazza Mackenzie real and vibrantly drawn.
Because of that realness the fate of Faraday seems, unfortunately, so right, here is a man who always seemed slight It was somewhat bitter-sweet to know that on reading this book, Joe Faraday is dead, and another series over. Because of that realness the fate of Faraday seems, unfortunately, so right, here is a man who always seemed slightly lost. His life validated by his job, his son and his relationships, he never seemed destined to be able to move on. As Bazza Mackenzie becomes more erratic, more driven, the blinkers come off and Winter seems to suddenly realise he's got to make some hard decisions.
Standing for parliament is both a lunatic undertaking for a man of his background, and yet so apt. Is it wrong to think that at least here would be a politician who everyone knows is a crook — without the need for a corruption enquiry?
But that all makes sense in the prism of this series which has always been about right and wrong, about people and the choices they make, the directions they take. Which it does, in an understated, almost reflective manner. Perfect styling for a perfect ending if there can be such a thing to a much loved series. Oct 18, Ann Chappe rated it it was amazing Shelves: The best yet in this series Winter is on centre stage throughout the book still playing the " bent cop" and weaving his way between the cynicism of the policemen who want to use him ,and the raw villainy of Bazza his underworld boss.
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Tension mounts as the two sides collide , the Bazza empire starts to crumble and Winter has to rely on the ex- colleagues who now despise and distrust him The best yet in this series Tension mounts as the two sides collide , the Bazza empire starts to crumble and Winter has to rely on the ex- colleagues who now despise and distrust him for salvation.
Mar 24, Wendy Hearder-moan rated it really liked it. Not a lot of action in this book and perhaps too much incomprehensible political maneuvering as Bazza goes off the rails in his bid to win the election! The tension comes from wondering if Winter can possibly succeed in his own bid for freedom. Of course if you really want to know, you can just skip to the last pages, but that would spoil everything.
A satisfying end to the series. Aug 17, Nat K rated it it was amazing Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was a fabulous ending to such a good series. The ends tied together nicely, and I'm sad to see such an interesting and diverse bunch of characters leave my reading sphere.
Perhaps you'll turn up again one day. I'm looking forward to reading the next series by Graham Hurley where we follow Jimmy Suttle and his move to the West Country. It's been a pleasure. Feb 21, Chris Lelliott added it.
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Many thanks to my friends hubby Pete Murray for recommending it. Nov 18, Richard Thompson rated it really liked it Shelves: The last in the Faraday and Winter series. At the end of the last book we assumed that Joe Faraday was about to commit suicide and at the beginning of this one we find he has, in fact, done that. Bazza is particularly vulnerable: The death of Faraday, whose relationship with Winter was problematical, especially after Winter's turn to the dark side, but remained friendly in a quiet kind of way, has helped spur these re-evaluations.
In a way, the key scene of the book is Faraday's funeral, at the Portchester Crematorium, where the officious boss Willard makes a touching speech, and where Hurley's writing is precise and moving, understanding Faraday and letting him go, just as those at the funeral would have to do, but also showing how he still touches the lives of those left behind.
The first section of this book may be the best writing in the series; the grief of Faraday's son JJ, mixed with his understanding of his father, and the way that, at the reception, the wheels of the plot go into motion; cops being cops, and Paul Winter being Paul Winter.
Book Review of Happy Days by Graham Hurley at AustCrimeFiction
That's where Hurley moves into a different gear. One of the series' great strengths has been its willingness to engage directly with the urban problems of Portsnmouth—often from the point of view of those outside the police—social workers, youth workers, ordinary folk. Bazza's Pompey First party and political campaign give him plenty of scope for one last scan of the harbor, and a cutting take on the realities of local politics.
If there's an influence here, it's The Long Good Friday, the efforts of a villain to go respectable, the ego behind such moves, and the blind spot he develops as his original empire begins to crumble. Hurley is very funny with the campaign stunts cooked up by his advisers, a kind of south coast West Wing operation — and it's really the overwhelming swagger that he's built for MacKenzie over the years that makes this work.
Bazza's need for cash could open him up, once and for all, to the police. His plan to salvage a million quid from a northern drug baron, Skelley, who in an earlier book wound up with Bazza's emergency store of cocaine. Winter is the middleman, but Winter also wants to get out, and Jimmy Suttle, protege of both him and Faraday, is the link to yet another undercover operation again MacKenzie.
