I found some of audiobooks of JM Dalgliesh’s Hidden Norfolk whodunnits on discount. Books 1–3 & 4–6 were each available for the price of a single book. They start a whodunnit series in which a significant proportion of fenland folk meet a sticky end.

The plots are good. They seem solid, with no obvious holes, and I have yet to suss the solution before it’s given, yet it’s never problematic. There are, of course, a few misdirections, as is traditional in a whodunnit. Actually, I did work one out before the reveal, but only two pages before, so it doesn’t really count.

The characterisation is also solid, essential in a whodunnit, given it pushes some to extremes. Nothing feels wrong, nothing feels forced, these stories describe people doing the things people do.

The structure of each book is good, well–paced, nothing rushed and nothing wasted.

The series improves as it progresses, and the sixth book in particular is rather powerful.

There is one aspect that does feel a little formulaic. The detectives are a team of three people, later four, all of whom are explored and appreciated. All other coppers, though, are ‘uniforms’, or other caricatures, sneezes in the novels’ underwear. To be fair, this situation improves as the series progresses.

There are action sequences which feel a bit … well, I’m not sure every fight in real life ends with the hero copper about to be killed when his support comes along at the very last moment and saves the day. This doesn’t happen in every book, thank God, but the predictability detracts.

Spoiler alert: the third novel, for me, was almost ruined when a key part of the novel’s development depended on outrageous chance. Fortunately for the storyline, this was to do with character development, and nothing to do with the mystery per se. Had the whodunnit resolution depended on ridiculous luck, I wouldn’t have appreciated it.

And this actually leads me to a real criticism of the novels. They are in need of decent editing. I don’t think that spoiler scene would have got past a good editor.

There are places where a paragraph seemingly starts talking about one subject, then, somewhere in the middle of the paragraph, the subject invisibly changes. I’m not sure if this is a textual problem or a performance problem, but something is up.

In places, the writing style is a bit dubious. Gritty detail is one thing, but gritty detail which simply describes something perfectly normal is quite another. If an author is going to describe the exact steps in, say, shaving an armpit (he doesn’t), then at least make it more than ordinary.

The reading is fine. It’s well paced, mostly, expressive, and thoroughly comprehensible. Greg Pattmore has a good range of accents, too.

Which leads me onto something I find a little odd. The author, JM Dagleish, seems to write one book a month. Admittedly, this book feels somewhat unfinished, given the lack of editing, but not to the extent of allowing an author to write a book a month, or at not a book a month were it not for some special factor. It could be a team effort with a fake author, it could be an author who is rather fond of ghost writers, I suppose it could be an author who really can write a novel over a cup of tea, but I suspect that special factor is today’s super–hyped subject, AI (that’s Artificial Intelligence, not Artificial Insemination). Whatever it is, the result is perfectly acceptable.

What speaks in favour of the AI, to me, is that is has a number of reputations, one of which is that it can’t do humour. Now, whether that reputation is true, or not, I can’t say, but I can say these books can’t do humour. There are a few places where things happen which are completely pointless, which, looking back, I suspect are meant to be funny, but which are so utterly far from being funny, they’re plain old unfunny—such as that spoiler above. Indeed, if the goal of these few short scenes were to make the reader feel nonplussed, they’d be spot on. Such things, though confusing in the moment, don’t interfere in my enjoyment of the book. They do, however, point me to AI.

I don’t remember whether it’s 1984 or Brave New World where the general population is kept placid by AI written entertainments. It seems those times have arrived. The new American Führer is probably delighted with the technology.

Look, these books are far better than some dismal tripe I’ve read over the last few years, but Janssen is no Rebus; not yet, anyway. They’re good. I don’t know whether I’d buy any more full price editions, but I will certainly buy some more three for one audiobooks, if more appear.