Maxwell’s movie by MJ Trow – Published by Thistle June 2013

The third in Meirion Trow’s ‘Mad Max’ series of crime novels, featuring teacher Peter Maxwell, his woman policeman (sic) partner and the inscrutable Metternich.

A school trip to the Museum of the Moving Image (the trip of Max’s dreams, if it were not for the school part), the flu virus, a missing student, a body, relationship troubles, this is an action packed, yet gentle story with all the twists regular readers of Max’s adventures have come to expect.

Verdict: I’m a big fan of MJ Trow’s books and chose this one at random, when the approach of autumn indicated it was time to review books to cheer up the darker evenings. Like the other ‘Mad Max’ books, this is engaging, amusing and well plotted. Max is wonderfully well drawn – the sort of teacher you always wish you’d had – and the other characters are not merely walk on parts. As for Metternich…what wisdom, what judgement, what intellect! ****