The Sentence is Death

How it reads

The Sentence is Death is mystery (amateur-sleuth crime mystery, specifically), and its dominant mood is tense. The suspense is the kind you feel in your shoulders. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are secrets, justice and identity. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It's a later book in a series — you'll usually want to start earlier. The ending resolves happily. At 384 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.