With the economy in the doldrums, war in Europe and plenty of uncertainty ahead, if you’re a crime fiction lover at least there will be plenty of opportunity to immerse yourself in a good mystery. From the award-winning author of The Outrage comes Killing Jericho , the gothic, helter-skelter thriller debut that introduces crime fiction's first ever Traveller detective, Scott Jericho. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.

Killing Jericho by William Hussey | Waterstones

Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. Accidental manslaughter was not prescribed the same punishment as for murder, and acts of war and/or of self-defense, or of civil punishment (through the court/council), were not considered murder. Excavations at Tell es-Sultan, the biblical Jericho, have failed to find any traces of a city at the relevant time (end of the Bronze Age), [2] which has led to a consensus among scientists that the story has its origins in the nationalist propaganda of much later kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel.

I read it over a particularly difficult personal period and it was such an incredible experience that took me away from all my woes and had me completely captivated and determined to find out what on earth was going on! Many Old Testament miracles plausibly have their roots in more down-to-earth happenings, and scholars have suggested that the fall of Jericho, if it happened at all, was the result of an earthquake that fortuitously coincided with the Israelites’ invasion of it. But his past mistakes are haunting him even there – he was sent to prison for assaulting a child-killer, which caused the case against him to collapse, and now that killer is stalking him for some reason – but that is nothing compared to what is to come.

Killing Jericho (William Hussey) – Book Review – Set The Tape

Deuteronomy 9:4: "When the LORD your God has driven them out before you, do not say in your heart, 'Because of my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land. Moreover, Hussey does a sterling job of establishing the duality of Jericho’s attachment to the travelling fairground. Rather, the LORD is driving out these nations before you because of their wickedness" (emphasis added).It’s a credit then that Hussey, drawing upon family experience within the GRT community and history, crafts a story with a unique premise and hook, steeped in Traveller lore, from a social group sorely unexplored and woefully misunderstood by the wider UK population. Despite seeking to distance himself from his roots, Jericho’s traveller background continues to have a major influence on his life. Fresh out of prison following an assault on a violent suspect, former Detective Constable Scott Jericho is forced to seek refuge with the fairground family he once rejected.

Killing Jericho (Scott Jericho, book 1) by Will Harker Killing Jericho (Scott Jericho, book 1) by Will Harker

Whilst I struggled with the final twist, I did enjoy exploring the motive for it - that was a nice addition which made for a different viewpoint. In the KJV, that Greek word is translated as "damnation" only 3 times, while it is translated as "judgment" 41 times. Jericho finds himself recruited to investigate a series of murders that echo one-by-one the deaths in an old fairground legend in a most gruesome fashion, but the murderer seems to be one step ahead of him. Also see The Lobster Boy and the Fat Lady’s Daughter – an American crime novel set in the traveller milieu.

He vividly describes life there, both the good and the bad, the magic seen by the punters and the gruelling work that goes on behind the scenes. As well as the cast of compelling characters, Griffiths’ skill in creating sweeping, realistic North Norfolk locations is what keeps readers coming back – that, and the will they/won’t they romantic tease between forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson that has been running through the series since The Crossing Places in 2009. Equally, his queerness isn’t mere window dressing; the heart of this first instalment finds itself in the relationship between Jericho and Ben, a former love thrown back into life, a messiness that proves an interesting counterpoint to the scant few queer detectives out there (such as Ann Cleves’ troubled yet steadfast Matthew Venn).