SIMON MASON has pursued parallel careersas a publisher and an author, whose YA crimenovels Running Girl, Kid Got Shot and Hey,Sherlock! feature the sixteen-year-old slackergenius Garvie Smith. A former ManagingDirector of David Fickling Books, where heworked with many wonderful writers, includingPhilip Pullman, he has also taught at OxfordBrookes University and has been a RoyalLiterary Fund Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.Lost and Never Found is the third book in theDI Ryan Wilkins Mysteries. The first book,A Killing in November, received widespreadcritical acclaim and was shortlisted for the CWAGold Dagger. The Second book, The BrokenAfternoon, was a Times Audio Book of the Weekand a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month.
This is a terrific crime novel, with a startlingly original
protagonist we're going to see a lot more of. Oxford's mean streets
just got meaner.
*Mick Herron*
This moody, atmospheric novel is full of surprises, with subplots
about sexual harassment and the impact of the Syrian civil war.
*Sunday Times (Crime Book of the Month)*
It's a brave writer who sets a new crime series in Inspector
Morse's Oxford but Mason has come up trumps with chalk-and-cheese
cops DI Ryan Wilkins and DI Ray Wilkins...It's well plotted and
very funny. *****
*The Sun*
The first novel in a promising new police series set in Oxford that
explores the working relationship between a chalk-and-cheese
detective duo.
*Sunday Times Crime Club (Star Pick)*
This has a TV series written all over it.
*Daily Mail*
Simon Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s. This
angelic two-year-old son, Ryan Jr ("Is it hard being a daddy?"),
are superb and his relationship with Ray, a snob with a heart of
gold beneath the sharp suit, shows huge potential. The good news is
they'll be back.
*Mark Sanderson, Times (Best New Crime Fiction for Jan 2022)*
The story has modern relevance, ingenious plotting, vivid
characterisation, a touching father-son relationship and
impressively accurate city geography.
*The Times (Audiobook of the Week)*
[T]his is a very individual piece of work, with a satisfying plot
involving Syrian refugees, snobbish dons and nimble interaction
between the ill-assorted protagonists. There is real craftsmanship
at work here.
*Financial Times*
Ryan Wilkins is about as far removed from George Smiley as a
protagonist can be, he may in time become as memorable. He's an
extraordinary creation, and demonstrates that even in the most
suspenseful thrillers, character is king
*The Spectator*
Mason avoids the obvious tropes, and rather movingly focuses on
Ryan's relationship with his young son. Well plotted, too. It's the
first in a series: start now and avoid the rush.
*Guardian (Best Holiday Reads)*
Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s
*The Times (Best Books For Summer)*
Mason has reformulated Inspector Morse for the 2020s. The murder
mystery is worthy of Colin Dexter but the result is less bookish
and more bolshie
*The Times (Best Crime Book of 2022)*
This moody, atmospheric novel is full of surprises.
*Sunday Times (Crime Book of the Year)*
My favourite crime novel of the year was Simon Mason's A Killing in
November . . . it was enhanced by deft prose and the detective duo
of social misfit Ryan Wilkins and the Balliol-educated Ray
Wilkins.
*BookBrunch*
Mismatched cops probe a college murder in this funny and
well-plotted debut
*Sun Scotland (Book of the Year)*
A real page-turner . . . the relationship between the two
detectives is beautifully developed, and it's brilliantly plotted
and very funny
*Wiltshire Life*
Simon Mason's Ray Wilkins crime novels are my latest addiction. I
wait impatiently for each one. What are the triple pillars of any
great story? Character, Plot and Language. In the twin heroes of
his novels (both called Wilkins and so unalike: they somehow create
together one immortal police detective) he has created characters
for the ages. His plots race thrillingly around an Oxford you never
knew existed. His language though ... without exhibiting a trace of
"writerly" self-consciousness, he is capable of phrase-making and
description of the very highest quality. Those three perfect
pillars support truly memorable crime novels, as great a
contribution to the noble British genre of detective fiction as any
writer for decades.
*Stephen Fry*
My favourite UK series.
*M W Craven*
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