With the sad demise of both Christopher Fowler and Phil Rickman, my list of English crime writers whose new books I eagerly await, is diminishing. Thankfully still with us are Sarah Hawksworth, Jim Kelly, David Mark, Chris Nickson and Nick Oldham. I can add another name to that list – Tim Sullivan. His creation, unique in modern CriFi as far as I am aware, is Bristol copper Detective Sergeant George Cross.

Cross is autistic, with all the advantages and pitfalls that condition can bring. He doesn’t understand figures of speech or sarcasm.He interprets what he is told completely literally. Socially, he comes across as inept. However, his attention to detail is astonishing, and his short term memory for figures, names and details has caused the downfall of many a criminal. Most of his colleagues deal with his oddness with tact, recognising that they have in their midst a detective with rare skills.

Here, he is investigated the brutal death – by throat cutting – of an apparently blameless master tailor, slain in the toilet of a GWR train traveling from Bristol to Paddington. Billy Titcombe and his twin sister Gwen were tailors to the very wealthy, renowned for their fine cutting and sewing. Recently, they had marketed a slightly less expensive version of their suits. The reduced price was because the actually assembly of the cut cloth had been contracted out to – no surprise – China.

Billy Titcombe’s widow, Min, is a person of interest to Cross. She is Chinese, has powerful connections to important bureaucrats i her home country, and is also a senior chemist with a firm seeking the triple Holy Grails of EV battery technology – smaller size, quicker charging and greater capacity. Hovering in the background are a strange pair of South Korean tourists, who seem to have key connections to their county’s embassy in London.

The weightier stuff of a murdered tailor, mysterious scientists and the possible involvement of MI6 plays out against a backdrop of something much lighter, although of deep concern for George. Fans of the series must be patient while I update new readers. When he was at primary school, George’s parents Christine and Raymond divorced, and George has always resented Christine’s apparent abandonment. Unbeknown to him (until relatively recently) her departure was due to the fact that Raymond was in a homosexual relationship with a colleague from work. Now, they have decided on a reconciliation, but it is fraught with problems.

This novel is unlike any previous in the series as it has international and political aspects. Tim Sullivan leaves us to draw our own conclusions from the politics, and the events described here reinforced views I have had for some time. The timeless and toxic draw of money has allowed the Chinese State to infiltrate, politely and without fuss, most every aspect of British life – including our public services and education. Just a short walk from where I am writing this, a long established independent school became “partners” with a Chinese education corporation. Given that nothing in China exists outside the State, you can draw your own conclusions from that.

On a different note, The Tailor puts George Cross in severe physical danger for the first time. How he thinks and talks his way out of trouble is utterly delightful, and you must read it for yourself. George Cross is the most original creation in British CriFi for many a year, and Tim Sullivan portrays his working life with its many eccentricities with skill, humour and candour. The Tailor is a perfect gem of a book, many faceted, with each cut surface glinting with surprises and revelations. It will be published by Head of Zeus on 16th July. To read my reviews of earlier books in the series, click this link.