I would like to thank Netgalley and Matador for an advance copy of Sugar and Spice, the third novel to feature DS Jaswinder "Jazz" Singh of the Metropolitan Police.

After his recent efforts in front line policing Jazz is relegated to dealing with routine crime but you can't keep a good man down and in the course of investigating one such crime he comes across case of suspected paedophile grooming. Not one to let the grass grow under his feet Jazz assembles a team to investigate.

Although I have been aware of and interested to read this series this is the first one I have read so I have no prior knowledge of the characters or author. Initially I found the novel to be a bit of a slog as I didn't really get it but as I persevered it all clicked into place and it became a tense, enthralling read with some great humour from Jazz and his sidekick DI Tom "Boomer" Black if you ignore the author's propensity to over explain and end his chapters with an editorial along the lines of little did he know.

Jazz and Boomer are relics of older style policing, they just want to catch villains and aren't too particular about how they do it. This tends to end up with a certain amount of collateral damage but it gets the job done. In this novel they, themselves, end up as collateral damage but Jazz with a sneaking cunning saves the day. I'm not sure if this is entirely plausible as Jazz appears to be an alcoholic but it makes for a good read. They make for a great duo.

The novel really heats up in the second half. The first half is more Jazz stumbling around trying to turn his suspicions into either fact or concrete evidence but once the raid goes down, not in the most professional way it should be said but totally in keeping with the tone of the novel, the tension and action ramp up to a nail biting conclusion as Jazz fights against the clock to get justice and save his skin.

After a rocky start I enjoyed Sugar and Spice so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.