Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Publication Day Review: The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
Who would kill a bespoke tailor?
That is the initial central question for DS George
Cross of the Avon and Somerset police in The Tailor: A DS George Cross
Mystery by Tim Sullivan. This eighth book in the series opens with a
murder on a train. There is absolutely no question it was a murder.
The deceased man was found in the first-class
bathroom of a passenger train headed from Bristol to Paddington Cross in London.
Apparently, the plastic bag over his head did not fully do the job, so the
killer deeply slashed the victim’s throat. He cut so deeply that the killer
almost severed the head from the body.
That got the job done.
He also got away with it with nobody noticing
anything at all.
Because the victim was wearing a bespoke suit with
the label of “Titcomb & Titcomb’s of Park Street,” Detective Sergeant George
Cross believes there is a good chance that the deceased is one of their
clients. Within a short period of time, they learn that the deceased is one
William Titcomb.
Not a client, but one of the owners of a long
running family business. A third-generation tailor, William Titcomb was married
to Min, and had two small children. His twin sister, Gwen, is also heavily involved
in the business.
According to Gwen, he was headed to Heathrow Airport
to board a flight to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for fittings with two
clients. Then he was to travel on to Xiamen, China, where they have a tailoring
operation and check in there. Min comes from China, has contacts, and the facility
in China has been a huge boost to the family business. Mr. Titcomb was
traveling with two suitcases, presumably full with the suits for the clients in
Dubai. Those suitcases and their
contents are missing.
Where are the suitcases? Who killed the bespoke
tailor? Was he killed for the suits?
Just some of the questions that DS George Cross and
the assembled team must answer in The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim
Sullivan. If the case was not enough, Cross and several others have to deal
with professional and personal upheaval in their lives. For one thing, as long-time
readers know, Josie Ottey, has been promoted. That means she is now superior in
rank to Cross.
An issue that Cross is slowly adjusting to as it has
been very hard for him as social situations are very difficult. Ottey’s
promotion means that she will no longer be with him in the field conducting
interviews and gathering information. That fact also means that she won’t be
around to manage him or smooth over awkward situations with those he talks to
as he goes about investigations. That has the potential to be a real problem
for Cross and a huge problem for the next person in that role.
Then there is a family situation for Cross that is
best left to the reader to discover. I don’t want to reveal more as it could be
construed as a spoiler as it is a major piece of the plot. However, for those readers,
like me, who have gone through the death of a loved one due to cancer and absolutely
hate cancer storylines, it is not that. In fact, the issue here is not remotely
medically related in any way, shape, or form. You can rest easy on that aspect
of the read.
The Tailor: A DS George Cross Mystery
by Tim Sullivan is a complicated, fast moving, and highly entertaining read.
Much is going on in many different ways in the latest book in this long running
series. This review just skims the surface of this very good book.
Strongly Recommended.
Author Website: https://timsullivanusa.com/
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4fjUNAD
My digital ARC came from the publisher, Grove Atlantic, of Atlantic Crime,
through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Tuesday, June 02, 2026
Publication Day Review: The Bookseller: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
As the father of DS George Cross faces a
very hard medical diagnosis, he works the case of a murder inside Squire’s Rare
Books. Located in Bristol and owned by the Squire family, the bookstore has
been a fixture in Berkeley Square. The squires have been involved in the business
of rare books for decades, but world of bookselling has massively changed from
when Torquil Squire was a mere lad running books when he was a lad. The staff
that runs the place these days is having a hard time working together and
adjusting the business and there is friction.
Did that friction play a role or cause
the death of Edward Squire, son of Torquil, or not? A question that DS George
Cross and the rest of the team will have to answer in coming days along with a
host of other questions. A team that has a lot going on, professionally and
personally, as they deal with various matters including the repercussions of
recent events depicted in The Teacher.
Quite a lot is happening in The Bookseller:
A DS George Cross Mystery. This review deliberately skims the surface
of this intense police procedural. In my opinion, to reveal more would cause spoilers
and I won’t do that. Suffice it to say that this is a mighty good read in a
series that just keeps getting better and better.
As I have tried to make clear before,
each book in this series is well worth your time. The Bookseller: A DS George Cross
Mystery is as well.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4ctnvNP
I received a digital ARC from the
publisher, Atlantic Crime, imprint of Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with
no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Sunday, May 03, 2026
Review: The Teacher: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
With DS Josie Ottey off as she moves her
family to a new house, DS George Cross is stuck partnering with his boss, DCI Ben
Carson, as The Teacher: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
begins. Those of us who have read the series to this point understand very well
that this is not an optimal situation for DS George Cross.
In the coming days and weeks, it will
get way worse for him as well as a couple of other members of the investigate team.
Carson and Cross have been called out to
the scene of where an elderly man apparently went down a narrow staircase the
hard way. The smear of blood, a long trail, shows the path Alistair Moreton’s head
took in its final seconds. The neck is obviously broken. While DCI Carson sees
a slip and fall, PC Trevor Bain saw the defensive puncture wounds to the hands
of the deceased man and called for assistance.
As DS Cross notes, there are also bites
to the victim’s legs as well as some sort of puncture wound to his chest. It is
clearly not a simple slip and fall. In Cross’ opinion, the police constable was
one hundred percent correct in alerting the Major Crime Unit of the Avon and
Somerset Police.
What follows is a complicated case and a
hunt for the killer or killers. Along the way, not only do we see Cross deal
with a series of challenges, professionally and personally, we also follow as
various members of the team deal with their own professional and personal challenges.
In every case, those challenges would be spoilers if I revealed them here, so I
won’t.
Instead, I will simply point out that The
Teacher: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan is a very good
police procedural. Part of the excellent series that began with The
Dentist. This read, and the others, should be read in order as each
one extensively builds on the previous books of the series.
Strongly recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4rBurxe
I received a digital ARC from the
publisher, Atlantic Crime, imprint of Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with
no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Sunday, April 26, 2026
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Sunday, April 05, 2026
Review: The Monk: A DS George Cross Thriller by Tim Sullivan
DS George Cross is rarely shocked. After
all, he has seen quite a lot over the years. The scene in the woodlands of
Goblin Combe though has been quite the surprise for the Detective Sargent of
the Avon and Somerset police. It has been quite a surprise to others on the Major
Crimes unit team as well.
It is a bad business.
The ditch in the rural area has a chair
sitting in it. When folks smelled the odor in the area, most folks would think
that it came from a dead animal. It would only be if one got closer, as a dog
walker did this morning, that one would see the contents of the dumped chair.
One would see the remains of a badly beaten man, industrial duct taped to the
chair, and very clearly dead as time and nature has long been at work breaking
down what was once a vibrant person.
A person who, based on how he is still dressed,
was once a monk. In all likelihood, what sits before them is the body of Dom
Dominic Augustus of St. Eustace’s Monastery. He was reported missing two days
ago by the father abbot. Dom Dominic Augustus clearly went through a literal
hell on earth in his last hours before he was dumped here where he was finally found.
For Cross, the central question of the case
is answering the why. Not necessarily, the who did it part first. Once the team
is able to fully answer why the Benedictine Monk was brutally beaten to death,
everything else will fall into place.
And it does, slowly and beautifully.
DS George Cross always gets the killer or
killers. The process is always a highly entertaining aspect of these reads. That
is very true here as this reader snickered several times as things were said
between Cross and others. Along with the investigative process and those
details, several secondary characters, as well as Cross, are further developed.
As part of this process, we learn more about Cross’s background, why his mom
left, and the ongoing emotional impact of her return all these years later.
The result is another complicated read
that pulls the reader into this world very fast and does not let go. An
entertaining series that must be read in order for the full effect, The
Monk: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan is another installment
well worth reading.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4bFZyT5
My reading copy came from Atlantic Crime,
an imprint of Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a
positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Friday, March 13, 2026
Tuesday, March 03, 2026
Publication Day Review: The Politician: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
Peggy Frampton is very much dead in her
bedroom as The Politician: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim
Sullivan begins. The cleaning lady had found her employer dead that morning.
Now Cross, the Detective Sergeant from the Avon and Somerset Police, will lead
the hunt for the killer or killers as this most definitely is a murder case.
At one time, Peggy Frampton was the
Mayor of Bristol. In recent years, she has been a social media influencer
through an advice column, and a writer. She has a massive online presence and
impact, not only in her local Bristol, England, community, but far beyond. She
tended to ruffle feathers, at times, with her blunt advice.
She is survived by her husband, Peter,
and their adult children. Peter is a lawyer. As it happens, he is in London, on a case, and is on
the way back home as DS George Cross looks at the body and the crime scene.
While some, such as DCI Ben Carson, believe
this is aa case of a simple burglary gone wrong, DS George Cross does not.
Before much can be done by the local police, due to the high-profile nature of the
case, Chief Superintendent Heather Mathews is brought in to supervise. Fortunately
for everyone, while she has never worked with Cross before, she knows of him
and how he is, and so she allows him wide latitude to pursue the case as he
sees fit. That means he can treat it like any other case and not be micromanaged
by Carson or anyone else.
That is always a plus. Especially here
with a case that is complex and constantly evolving as lines of inquiry are
adjusted as evidence comes to light. As always, the reader knows that Cross
will identify and build a case against those involved. The real question is
what else will he and his team unearth in their pursuit of justice for the
dead.
For that, you will have to read the
book.
It would also be best if you started
with the first read, The Dentist: A DS George Cross Mystery, and
work your way forward to this fourth book of the re-released series. This is not
a static police procedural series with very little change over time. Instead,
and one of the things that makes it so good, characters constantly evolve and
deal with things in life, relationships change, and more happens while the
police work continues.
The Politician: A DS George Cross
Mystery by Tim Sullivan is another very good installment of a
really good police procedural series. What more could you want?
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Nu5Hrp
I received a digital ARC from the
publisher, Atlantic Crime, imprint of Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with
no expectation of a positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Sunday, February 01, 2026
Review: The Patient: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
Third in the police procedural series that began
with The Dentist, DS George Cross is outside the Major Crime Unit
in Bristol as The Patient: A DS George Cross Thriller by Tim
Sullivan begins. He is about to ride home on his bicycle when he sees a woman
who has been inside the station each day for the last several days. She is
soaked from the falling rain and eating a sandwich in the bike shelter. After a
little back and forth, she tells DS Cross that her name is Sandra Wilson and
her daughter was murdered.
He takes her inside, has Alice Mackenzie get the
soaked woman a towel, and looks at the paperwork Sandra Wilson brought with
her. Her daughter, Felicity, known to all as Flick, had a very long history of
drug use. The police that handled the case decided the death was an accidental
overdose, maybe even a suicide, and closed the case. Mom is very sure that her
daughter did no such thing. She is sure that it was murder. After going through
the file repeatedly and question the woman, DS George Cross spots an inconsistency
in the case that makes no sense at all.
That is what he does. He spots the smallest of
details because he is on the Autism Spectrum. The inconstancy he spotted was
ignored by those who worked the case. The system has failed the mother of the victim,
the victim herself, and the very young daughter of the victim. He starts
working the closed case as if it were his own regardless of who is annoyed that
he is doing so.
This includes his boss, DCI Carson, who would very
much prefer he not waste his time on a closed case. Especially when Cross could
focus on the current open case of a body being found in the river. Undeterred,
Cross does what he wants because he is a very good detective.
It isn’t like they are going to fire him as he is
very good. Much to the annoyance of others, including a fellow detective, who
should be focused on doing their own jobs better. Including a fellow detective
who is now bringing charges internally against him in order for the Force to
take disciplinary action against DS Cross.
This third book in the series now being published in
the United States by Grove Atlantic is a very good read. As is the police
procedural series to date. Best to read in order as Cross, Ottey, Mackenzie,
and other characters are fast becoming family for this reader.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Y9MXPY
I received a digital ARC from the publisher, Atlantic
Crime, imprint of Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a
positive review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2026
Tuesday, January 13, 2026
Publication Day Review: The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
It has been a few months since the
events of The Dentist as the police procedural, The Cyclist:
A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan begins, and DS George Cross
is at, in all likelihood, a crime scene. An annoyed contractor wants to get his
men back to work on the teardown of a row of garages, but the dead body wrapped
in plastic and sitting in the bucket of a digger has meant that all work is
stopped. Detective Sergeant George Cross of the Somerset and Avon police force
flatly and calmly explains the reality of the situation in his unique style and
returns to the business at hand—solving a murder.
The unique style of Detective Sergeant
George Cross is due to the fact that he is on the autism spectrum with
Asperger’s syndrome. He has a very hard time picking up on social cues and
interacting with people. He does not recognize emotions and has to go through a
sort of mental catalog to figure out the emotion a person is displaying on their
face. So, he is working hard to be civil and polite with the contractor who
wants nothing more than to get the project back underway, and doesn’t quite get
why DS George Cross is saying what he is saying to him. DS Ottey is soon able
to rescue Cross before things go sideways with the man.
DS George Cross is detail focused and
driven and is an exceptional investigator though he drives everyone around him
a bit mad at times. Of course, if everyone had his attention to detail, that
would really help everyone. Since the pathologist clearly does not, she might
have noticed clues on the body that would give them an idea as to the identity
of the victim. The victim had no identification, no engraved watch, no cell
phone, nothing at all that would identify him. But, in his close examination of
the body in front of the perturbed pathologist in the morgue, DS Cross identified
several clues that indicate the victim was a serious cyclist.
That fact soon proves out to be true and
the team is able to identify the victim. Now that the victim is identified, they
can actually start investigating him, his background, relationships, etc., and
begin to make slow progress in a complicated case.
This second book in the series builds
off the first book, The Dentist, and does so very well. Further
character development of George Cross, as well as several other characters, is
underway here and does not distract from the main storyline. Also present are
the economic budgetary issues impacting the police in the name of efficiency and
are, actually, doing the exact opposite. Also present is a complex mystery with
far reaching implications.
A police procedural series that should
be read in order, The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim
Sullivan is a highly entertaining read.
The book, and the series, to date, is
highly recommended.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4omEQLH
I received a digital ARC from the
publisher, Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
Monday, January 05, 2026
Monday, December 29, 2025
Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in September and October 2025
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Review: The Dentist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
As next Tuesday already has a
publication day review scheduled, I am posting my review today. If you preorder
now or pick it up later, make sure you get the new publication as the previous published
one with a totally different cover that includes the word “thriller” is widely available.
Detective Sergeant George Cross is a man
who is very much set in his ways. For very good reason. He is on the autism spectrum
with Asperger’s syndrome. He has a very hard time picking up on social cues and
interacting with people. He does not recognize emotions and has to go through a
sort of mental catalog to figure out the emotion a person is displaying on
their face. He comes off as cold and dispassionate as he zero sense of humor
and takes nearly everything literally. He gets hyper focused on the minutia of
a case. In so doing, he looks for patterns and anomalies. If you need somebody
to find the needle in the haystack, he would be your man. He is an exceptional investigator
though he drives everyone around him a bit mad at times.
As The Dentist: A DS George Cross
Mystery by Tim Sullivan begins, he is at the outdoor location of a
deceased elderly male. The man was clearly homeless in recent months and, quite
possibly, years. The Uniformed Officers that responded to the scene have
already deduced that this is just another random “homeless on homeless” crime and
have lost all interest. DS George Cross is very sure they are wrong as the man
still has his bag containing some food and alcohol. The alcohol is worth more
than its weight in gold on the streets and one would think a homeless killer
would have taken that.
No, something else is afoot. For DS George
Cross the deceased also represents a fellow outsider like himself. He knows he
does not fit in and has to work to maintain any sort of human contact with the
team and others. He also is acutely aware of how he is and how he has been this
way back to childhood. He also is very aware that he can’t change any aspect of
who he is as that is the very fiber of his being. Truth be told, he doesn’t
care. He just does what he does. Because of that, he is an exceptionally good investigator
in the Major Crime Unit of the Avon and Somerset police.
Because he is what he is, he is obsessed
with rules and procedure. Everything is triple checked, if not more, and fully
documented. He builds meticulous cases that prosecutors relish as they know
that no corners were cut and everything is perfect going into trial. He may
have little to no sense of humor and takes everything literally, but he also
has a conviction rate of 97 percent.
DS Cross is absolutely certain that it
is a murder. He is also sure that it is not a case of street violence among the
homeless. A man that, as Cross spots in the mortuary, was married and a
widower. Not only that, but Cross also spots that the murder victim still has
his contacts in his eyes. After the pathologist that missed them uses tweezers
and gets them out, Cross notes that they are a little bit larger than normal
size. A specialized set of lenses that are used to treat a very specific and
rare eye condition. That information could be used to track down his identity. Another
example, in his mind, that if other folks would just do their jobs properly, he
would not waste so much time having to go back over their work.
That attention to detail and knowledge
beyond the job soon leads the police to his identity. They also soon have an obvious
suspect, another homeless person, who clearly had a physical fight of some kind
with the victim in the last few hours before the murder. The suspect was too drunk
and has no memory of what happened. But, charging him, based on the evidence,
would be easy and it would resolve the case successfully as the suspect
probably did it in the mind of his boss and others.
When ordered to charge the suspect, Cross
refuses, and the task falls to his partner, DS Josie Ottey. Cross also chooses
to continue to investigate as he believes the suspect in their cells absolutely
did not do it. He believes somebody else violently murdered the man as he was
strangled so hard his trachea was broken.
With the victim identified, it doesn’t take
Cross long to consider the fact that the death in the here and now might have
something to do with the murder of the man’s wife fifteen years ago. A murder
that was a media sensation. Dubbed the “Tea Set Murder,” it saw a man who
confessed, later recanted, and was ultimately convicted, sent to prison.
It also was a case, apparently as Cross
begins to review it, one that had issues. Was it just cutting corners and
sloppy police work, or was there an actual police coverup? Was the actual
killer then never identified and thus remained free? Is it that killer again in
the here and now or what? Over the objections of his boss and others, Cross
continues to work to link the two cases, and drags Ottey and Mackenzie along
with him.
Originally published by Pacific Press in
Great Britain in 2020, this police procedural now published in the United States by Grove Atlantic is
very good. For those of us who have family members on the spectrum and/or
worked for a number of years with students on the spectrum in the local public
school system, the first few chapters of constant explanation of how DS Cross
is and why can be a bit tiresome. However, if one gets through those several
early chapters and stays with it, the patience is rewarded with a very good
read as the case develops.
The Dentist: A DS George Cross
Mystery is
a very good read. Built around a main character that is pretty much brilliant
and eccentric, the author has assembled an interesting cast of secondary
characters. Whether that be the boss, DCI Carson, who is not an idiot though he
is a political animal and looking to move up, DS Josie Ottey, who tries to get
him to be better with others and is often exasperated by that and other things,
the new Police Staff Investigator, Alice Mackenzie, a trainee who soon learns
to do only what she is explicitly told to do, and others. Each character,
regardless of their importance in the read, is quite distinctive as the read
becomes more and more complex and pulls the reader deep into an intriguing fictional
world.
Strongly recommended and very much worth
your time.
Once again, I am indebted to Lesa Holstine
who reviewed
this book very positively back in July. She noted that the book was listed on
NetGalley. So, I went and picked it up. I also requested and was quickly granted
permission to read, The Cyclist, which is the second book in the
series and will be released by Grove Atlantic in January. Hopefully, they plan
on doing the entire series.
Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3VnwxCq
I received a digital ARC from the
publisher, Grove Atlantic, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a positive
review.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2025
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