He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek RaymondMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
He Died with His Eyes Open, by Derek Raymond, is the story of an unnamed police officer working in the small and under-funded "Unexplained Deaths" department of the British police force. In this, the first book in the series, he is brought in an apparently drunk, possibly homeless, old man is found brutally beaten to death. Over the course of the case, the narrator digs into the man's past and discovers his passions and fears. The further the detective digs into the case, the harder he finds it to maintain any professional distance from the crime.
Raymond's neo-noir mystery really captures the world-weary but driven detective character; the unnamed narrator hints at a dark or troubled past, but also displays a passion for uncovering the truth and providing justice to the people least likely to see it.
The sections dealing with the old man's writing are perhaps a little overly long at times, but this is still a really good entry.
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