‘When Thomas asked if I’d say something about what first drew me to his novel, Shadow of the Rock, he self-effacingly added, “if you remember”. It made me realise it was over five years ago now that I first read his lovely debut novel and the first in his Spike Sanguinetti crime series of which there are now five. And of course the truth is I remembered exactly what drew me, and exactly how I felt on reading it.
‘It’s true that Thomas had, all by himself, figured out that literary crime would allow his own particular talents to shine, and the plotting of Shadow of the Rock is very fine indeed, and there wasn’t ever much that changed. But the thing with first reading Thomas is how at ease you feel as a reader.
‘Simply put, he writes sentences, his characters speak like real people speak, they are three-dimensional and fully formed. You never for a second think of the person toiling away behind, creating them. There is a delightful quotidian nature to how his characters’ act. His kitchen table scenes, as I call them, where the characters’ personalities emerge as they go about their domestic duties, are what I recall most vividly, looking back.