To say that Eddie had a difficult upbringing is an understatement. A childhood filled with solitude, passed over in favour of his elder brother who was then tragically killed in a car accident; witness to the aftermath of a suicide driven by his mother’s jealousy; the disappearance of his own father in mysterious circumstances, missing presumed dead, and the infidelity of his own partner with his best friend. It would be a testament to anyone to survive such ordeals unscathed but to come though as a youth boxing prodigy, award winning tattooist and co-owner of a successful music venue shows what an extraordinary character lies at the heart of this book.
Lost Connections is Jim Ody’s debut novel, a modern day crime caper that starts at the flash point, the abduction of his young daughter and then through dialogue, his own thoughts and a shifting perspective of flash backs and the various characters own view points the story is back filled. Although the first third of the book is more about setting up Eddie’s relationships with the secondary cast once we catch up with the initial incident the book starts to move at a brisk pace.
Rather than report the abduction to the police straight away, he and his band of helpers, neighbour and fan-boy Jez, forgiven buddy and business partner Jason, Father Duggan, a man who turned to the church to atone for past mistakes and will they/will they love interest Ruby, decide that they can solve this themselves.
The book then takes us through a series of sleuthy puzzles which at their best head towards Peter Falk “ Just one more thing, sir,” territory, but by the end of the story, when everybody is running around a stately home, using secret passageways, hidden doors and forgotten rooms to avoid east European bad guys, is sometimes just one “zoiks” short of a Scooby Snack. (They would have got away with it too if it wasn’t for these pesky adults.)
Stylistically Lost Connections has a very conversational style, is laced with cultural references, particularly musical ones, with occasional switches to philosophical asides and poetic descriptions that wouldn’t have seemed out of place coming from the pen of the likes of Umberto Eco.
The story resolves pretty much as expected, mainly thanks to someone calling the police, which is what they should have done all along, but then I suppose you just have an episode of The Bill, rather than a crime novel. He gets back his daughter and he gets the girl but the one intriguing thread left hanging centres around his inventor father and a strange device, one which actually lies at the heart of the story but so far has been only a walk on role. And it is this thread that will lead us into the next book which could possibly head in a more science fiction or occult direction and to me that seems much more of an intriguing prospect.
As debuts go, it is a decent first attempt, it didn’t change my world but it did leave me with enough interest in where it all goes next and if you can make the reader want to come back for more then all other considerations aside you are on to a winner.
