Past Mortem

This new novel from Ben Elton centres on the concept of Friends Reunited and a series of grisly murders which all seem to be loosely connected to that infamous website. Each of these graphic murder scenes is stomach churning but really inventive and, as always with Ben's writing, there's still the dark and funny side. The calling card of the murderer is a musical sound track to the school days of each respective victim. Music from the Thompson Twins, Men at Work and Wham is writ large in this brilliant, darkly comic novel. The hero is a police detective, Daniel Newson, who on the one hand is desperately trying to track down the brutal murderer and on the other is trying to get hold of his first love from his schooldays via Friends Reunited in order to re-ignite their teenage fumblings into something far more passionate. And, of course, in the end the two strands of the novel are superbly brought together with an unexpected denouement. Ben is a fantastic writer and a satirist par excellence whose sales are on the up and up.