2016 Rainbow Awards Honorable Mention: It's a Sin by Steve Burford (272-08-14-2016)

[reviews_and_ramblings]

1) Narrated from the third person point of view, the book is Intelligent, anti-stereotype, humorous, heartbreaking, surprising, quiet, unapologetic, showing the imperfections of the characters, the circumstances they find themselves in, and the decisions they sometimes make in attempts to deal with it all. The characters come out of the page and grab you. The twists and turns of the plot will hook you from page one. I could not put it down! I read it all at once and would certainly recommend the book to anyone who likes a modern day mystery.

2) This was a British police procedural (is this a UK term?) rather than a romance and quite refreshing for it. The plot was well worked although the ending became a little complicated. Characters were perhaps a bit too typical of their type with many of the usual traits ascribed to British police. The setting was well done and felt authentic.

3) Good police procedural and very interesting relationship between the newly-minted Inspector and Sergeant. I'll be keeping an eye out for this series. 

It's a Sin (Summerskill and Lyon #1) by Steve Burford
Gay Mystery / Thriller
Series: Summerskill and Lyon
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: NineStar Press (August 4, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1911153773
ISBN-13: 978-1911153771
Amazon: It's a Sin (Summerskill and Lyon #1)
Amazon Kindle: It's a Sin (Summerskill and Lyon #1)

“He is a talented and very promising young policeman. Make no mistakes, he deserves the promotion.” But when gay Detective Sergeant Dave Lyon is assigned to Detective Inspector Claire Summerskill’s team as part of the Service’s ‘positive discrimination policy’, no-one at Foregate Street Station is happy. And that includes Summerskill and Lyon. Mutual suspicion and mistrust must be shelved however, when a young man’s beaten body is found on a canal tow path, and a dead-end case of ‘happy slapping’ unexpectedly turns into a murder investigation. Why would someone want to kill middle class arts student Jonathan Williams? And how is his death linked to that of rent boy and would be ‘adult’ film star Sean? As Summerskill and Lyon’s investigations proceed, the newly-promoted detectives begin to untangle a web of connections, false assumptions and sheer prejudices that force them both to question closely not just their relationship with each other but with the rest of their colleagues at Foregate Street Station and with the Police Service as a whole. “It’s A Sin” is the first in the “Summerskill and Lyon” police procedural novels.

Rainbow Awards Guidelines: http://www.elisarolle.com/rainbowawards/rainbow_awards_2016.html