Shamus Dust

This book encapsulated the classic noir of the the 1940s murder mystery films! Starting with a local pimp found shot dead in a church on a starkly cold Christmas Day in post-war London (1947). Once the deceased Raymond Jarrett's flat has been searched, a gruesome discovering is made, he has pictures of young boys in compromising positions. Shamus is hired to as a PI to investigate the case by Councillor Drake who owned the flat Raymond lived in. He uncovers a homosexual ring, blackmail, greed, corruption and bent coppers all with the assistance of an alluring and mysterious young female doctor. The more Shamus investigates the more he finds in this fantastic dark noir tale.

I tend to picture the story of a book in my head while I read, but I have never experienced that a book has played out as a movie in my head. From the first page I felt I was watching an old school, black and white detective film. I'd love to see the real film of this some day. It has me imagining what the familiar area of London would have looked like on those days. Great read!

A well written debut and an enjoyable read. It took a little while to really get in to this and care about the characters but after the first few chapters, I wanted to know "whodunnit". There were a couple of loose ends in the storyline that I'd have liked to be completed but then, like real life I guess there's always things that don't get done.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was interesting, moved along at a good pace, and the descriptions of post-war London were excellent, and easy to visualise. The Shamus, ie. American private detective Mr. Newman, receives a phone call on Christmas Day from a London local politician, Councillor Drake, telling him there has been an incident and he must take a set of keys to the Detective Inspector of the City police, who is in charge of the incident. Councillor Drake's driver has the keys and is waiting in the street for him. Newman's customary fee will be doubled. Newman does as requested, and finds that the incident concerns a man who has been killed outside a church, a nurse found the body when she visited the church for private prayer on her way to work. He is intrigued because parts of the story do nothing true, so he allows his curiosity to get the better of him, and starts investigating for himself. The death toll keeps rising, and people are getting beaten up, including Newman on several occasions. He gradually uncovers a sorry tale of crooked policemen, dishonest businessmen and councillors, and sordid lifestyles that have created many of the misfortunes suffered by people involved in the corruption, for themselves and their families. I was reminded of books by Raymond Chandler in the way the story is written. The police corruption is quite shocking in places, I would hope the author is using poetic licence for the story-line; but we are talking about half a century ago, powerful business men were not going to show scruples in the rush to make huge fortunes rebuilding London.

SHAMUS DUST is a brilliant debut gritty noir murder mystery by Janet Roger. Released 28th Oct 2019, it's 376 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats. This is a wonderfully well written homage and a gritty superbly plotted PI noir in its own right. The characterization is spot on and believable. This is a very well crafted and engaging mystery. As other reviewers have said, there are nods to Chandler, Cain, Hammett, and the rest of that crew, but honestly, the author's own unique voice is what kept me reading long into the night. This is a superlative read and a classic PI novel. Bonus points for setting it in London and not the mean streets of LA or NYC. Five stars. This is a really good one. I will be following this author enthusiastically.