Review by Frank Plowright

It’s now been a month since the murder of London’s mayor, for which Al Aldley is being set up. So far, with the help of Inspector Ellis he’s managed to avoid arrest, but an ambitious police officer has him in his sights, although the time elapsed is impacting on Grant’s hopes of the case resulting in his promotion.

Having introduced racism within Scotland Yard in Lost Lad London 2, Shima Shinya starts here by introducing a new viewpoint on the matter, that of a Muslim woman with so little faith in the administration that she wonders if she’s betraying others by being part of the status quo.

Such scenes bolster the main mystery, which bursts right open as we learn who is setting up Al for murder, and why they’re doing it. As with the entire primary cast, there are strong motivations, even though they’re someone barely seen so far. At this point the emphasis shifts again to a game of cat and mouse where power and influence is pitted against experience and instinct.

However, shifting back to a police procedural that ends relatively rapidly undermines the entire series. There’s certainly no point in greatly prolonging a story that’s reached a natural end, but Shimya’s raised real world issues, only to dump them for an introspective ending. While those issues aren’t something to be resolved in a couple of glib pages, Lost Lad London calls out for Grant’s attitude to be confronted at the very least, and it isn’t. Furthermore, there’s never an explanation of how London’s mayor could be so simply killed on a not greatly crowded underground train with no-one noticing, an issue key to setting up the series.

It leaves Lost Lad London as admirable in raising issues and in being compact, but needing a little more attention in the final stages.