The DCI Ryan detective novels set in my beloved Northumberland have been huge bestsellers so I thought I ought to read the first – besides, Lindisfarne is wonderful and I wanted to spend some time there, albeit in story rather than in person.

Well, I can see why the books have been such a success: I missed my stop on the tube because I was so engrossed! There’s no higher praise from a Londoner.

I’ve also discovered a new genre: crime romance. While ostensibly a crime novel, it’s mainly a female fantasy romance, where the brooding, handsome, rather damaged Detective Ryan is not only opened up, put back in contact with his emotions, and taught to love again by the female protagonist, Dr Anna Taylor, but to show it’s the ultimate wish fulfilment, Anna also turns her future mother-in-law into a new mother for herself, in place of her own dead mum.

So basically it’s a female wish fulfilment fantasy dressed up as a crime novel. Sadly, the Lindisfarne location didn’t come across too strongly either.