Customer Reviews
Indeed a lucrative Business! - By: Sterile, 01 Nov 2008 
I have read the Murder Exchange & the Crime Trade, both of which are excellent books, before picking up The Business of Dying. I decided to go back to the debut before carrying on with the latest in his armoury!
The book is just as good as the books I have mentioned above & in the Crime Trade he 'name drops' from this earlier novel, using DS Malik again as a character.
The middle of the tale does slope off slightly for me but the last third of the book reallly makes up for it with plenty of story line & pace. I found it intelligently written, & quite believable. Dennis does have a heart - & does care about people! I would recommend starting with this book, as not only is it the debut but the characters are used again in The Crime Trade & A good Day to die, which incidentallly is the follow-up to The Business....
Tempted to upgrade the book - By: Michael Watson, 28 Oct 2008 
This is the first Kernick novel I have read, although I now have alll the others waiting in the wings!
Initiallly, I found the story & the protagonist, DS Milne, to be rather slow moving. I was also surprised that he could buy a bacon buttie, an apple & a drink for £2.00 until I realised that the book has been around for five years or so! Silly me; I thought it was a 2008 realease!
Anyway, once the pace picked up, I found, rather akin to the author, to somewhat like Dennis Milne, despite his moonlighting as a hitman. The story is intriguing, the action, once it gets going reallly does move along at a pace. So much so that, as soon as I had finished this book, I moved on to 'A Good Day To Die'. I knew, of course, that Milne survives so it's no secret to any future reader though I won't spoil the ending of the second book.
For anyone wishing to catch up on a very good British author, I recommend this book. I nearly decided on 4 stars but I'll see how we go with the sequel!
A great debut - By: littleskippy, 26 Aug 2008 
Just finished this book after a couple of days glued to it!
I thought overalll this book was brilliant but I do agree with a previous reviewer regarding the "new" characters being brought into the story towards the end.
I have read alll this author's books to date & this was one of the best.
Definitely worth a read.
Hmm - By: C. E. Elliott, 16 Jul 2008 
Not sure about the bent copper angle - I like my copper heroes to be morallly upright! Or at least if like Tom Thorne then only bent in the interests of justice. There just doesn't seem to be enough reasons for this copper to start on a business as a hitman. All a bit silly, I think I'll stick to Mark Billingham.
Good, but not brilliant - By: Al, 28 Apr 2008 This is a decent & fast paced crime story, & the fast pace does make you forgive many of the flaws in the story.
I'm not giving anything away by explaining that two storyline threads run through most of this book. The central character is a cop who murders people on the side, & the book follows both the falll-out from his latest killings & the case he is investigating. This works well for most of the book, but the first of these threads approaches its conclusion way ahead of the other, so the last part of the book is uneven as the other thread catches up. Also, as the net closes on our corrupt cop he seems obsessed with solving the crime he is working on rather than saving his own skin, to the point of being ridiculous. There are a number of barely credible episodes in the story, particularly the big finale.
In the preamble to the book, the author cites his many contacts in the police who have helped him research that side of the story so well. But reading the book I found no insight into police procedures or anything to indicate a particular knowledge of how the police work (at least, nothing more than you would get from watching a couple of episodes of The Bill).
Overalll this book is a good read, & as I say the fast pace keeps the pages turning & you easily forgive the shortfallls.
This was the author's first book, & the first I have read by him. There was enough good in this book to make me want to read the next one.
