Good People

A Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of 2013

A Finalist for the Crime Writers' Association's John Creasey New Blood Dagger
An atmospheric, criminally smart new police procedural that brilliantly evokes Wales, Good People marks the introduction of a compelling detective and the arrival of a shining new talent in crime fiction, Ewart Hutton.


Detective Sergeant Glyn Capaldi, fallen from grace and exiled from Cardiff to the Welsh countryside, does his best to serve as the catchall detective in the big bit in the middle that God gave to the sheep. It's a place where nothing of any significance is meant to happen, a place where his superiors believe he can do little harm.

But trouble has a way of catching up with Capaldi. Six men and a young woman disappear after a night of rugby and drink. They don't all reappear. The ones who do are "good people," and they give a reasonable explanation for the absence of the woman and their friend. Only Capaldi remains unconvinced. In the face of opposition, Capaldi delves deeper and starts to uncover a network of conflicts, betrayals, and depravity that resonates below the outwardly calm surface of rural respectability.