Book Review - The Gilded Edge by Danny Miller: An atmospheric novel showing the Swinging Sixties wasn't all peace and love.

Danny Miller’s first book, Kiss Me Quick, was shortlisted for the New Blood Dagger award in 2011.  The Gilded Edge is his second book, which follows on from the first, with detective Vince Treadwell as the central character, investigating murders during the Swinging Sixties.  

Treadwell is an ambitious detective, who is given plenty of latitude by “Mac” his soon to retire boss.  There are two murders in the book – Upper class gambler, drinker and womaniser Johnny Beresford from Belgravia and nurse Marcy Jones, a black single mother and nurse from Notting Hill.  Treadwell’s investigation of the “Blueblood from Belgravia” sees him irresistibly drawn to Beresford’s girlfriend Isabel Saxon-Blane.  She’s convinced that she murdered Beresford, but Treadwell thinks otherwise. 

Despite a seemingly neat and tidy answer to the Beresford’s murder emerging and behind the scenes pressure from the still powerful upper class to quietly finish the case, Treadwell continues to investigate and finds a link between the two murders.  However he also finds himself in danger from a number of quarters and has to “tread well” not just to solve the cases, but to stay alive.

I found this book a little hard to start, as Miller’s writing style isn’t what I would usually go for.  However, I soon found myself lost in the book, which I finished in two sittings.  I liked the characters, particularly Treadwell, who reminds me a little of Michael Caine’s characterisation of Harry Palmer.  The social contrast between the upper class playboy set of the Montcler club and the repulsive criminals Tyrrel Lightly, his boss Michael X and his self styled Black Power group is startling.  Yet there’s no honesty from either side here, just lying, cheating and debauched criminality – some people are just able to get away with it more easily than others!  The plot moves along quickly and is made livelier by Treadwell’s slightly “devil may care” approach to criminal investigation, but it has plenty of twists and turns, with a satisfying final reveal.

So, whether you’re after a well plotted crime, an excellently drawn atmosphere of the Swinging Sixties or a protagonist that you can cheer on, Miller has placed all of these in The Gilded Edge, making this book definitely worth a try

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