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Alan Hunter's "Gently" books have been called "the English Maigret." They started in the 1950s and describe the activities of Scotland Yard's Inspector (later promoted as far as Chief Superintendent) Gently, his pipe, his peppermint creams and his fishing, and his various associates, assistants etc. through twenty years or more. Often, but not always, set in the author's native East Anglia, they are descriptive and evocative and part of the pleasure of a Gently is to work out the real locations to which Hunter gave fictional names - some not so very different from the originals. These are not police procedurals - you won't find painstaking descriptions a la CSI - they are more, if you like, character and psychology-based. 'Gently Down the Stream' is the archetypal example, set in East Anglia half a century ago when there were no mobile phones, helicopters, DNA profiling and the like. Gently is no dashing, enthusiastic young copper either, but a mature detective with years of experience and knowledge which he uses almost without noticing. He isn't out to make his mark - he's done that already. The books, especially the earlier ones, are a tremendously good read, and this is no exception. I read all the series years ago and bought several. Now the use of the main character in a series on TV entirely divorced from Alan Hunter's original concept has resulted in the books, mainly long out-of-print, being republished. I bought this one to read again and to add to my own small collection. It was worth every penny and I thoroughly enjoyed it; I look forward to acquiring more in the series. Readers who come to Gently via the BBC TV series should note that the latter is an appalling, excrutiating lot of nonsense, featuring an actor physically entirely unlike George Gently and set in the wrong place, with the wrong supporting characters and dreadful parodies of the original story-lines or even entirely new ones having no relation at all to Hunter's work. If you did happen to like the TV series (I am sorry for you if you did) you will find the real thing far more enjoyable. There is currently a glut of earlier books on the market, and for a few pounds you can pick up the first half-dozen examples of the canon. Buy them, read them, keep them - you will want to return to them. And if you do know Maigret, then yes, perhaps George Gently is indeed the home-grown version.Read full review
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