Murder On Line One by Jeremy Vine:

This is technically Vine’s second novel and even on Socratic terms, it’s pushing the envelope.  Edward Temming was the host of a lunchtime phone in, in Sidmouth Devon till a family tragedy intervenes.  Made redundant by his employer, Edward discovers a plot.  

Well, I can’t really say anymore as it may ruin your enjoyment.  Vine is an English eccentric and it’s a truly bizarre wedge of prose; with a surreal line in simile and metaphor. See also: the  characterisations of women in this novel (which vary between traitorous/menopausal/libidinous) and a character later in the novel which I would consider to be transphobic. 

Linking the narrative is a random chain of objects and events.  These include variously: a catfishing scam, antique automata, a Scooby Gang of angry pensioners, an old episode of Columbo, the early Hitchcock ‘Rebecca’ and a computer hard drive filled with acid.  No, I’m not making this up.  

And although it is nice to see a real place (I should, know, my wife lived there) it is too overworked as a gimmick.  Put it this way: if you don’t like it you can use it as SatNav to find your way round the South West. Sidmouth, a place where nothing happens on a daily basis is portrayed as a cross between 1930’s Chicago and millennial Baltimore.  

It’s at least fifty pages too long and an editor should have ended the book in Sidmouth Costa.  A series is planned.  Less snark, more logic and sharper editing may improve it. It’s published by Harper Collins on April 25th, 2025 and I thank them for a preview copy.