POWER GAMES is the third in the DS Kate Powers series set in Birmingham. Kate has dodgy knees so the doctor has recommended tennis as a suitable form of exercise. On the way to work from her early tennis lesson she comes across the scene of a road accident where a lorry has driven into a house. Fortunately no-one is hurt but the beautiful house will probably have to be demolished. The investigation into the crash is covered by a different part of the police force but Kate keeps an eye on the old couple who survived. The main case Kate is working on is a number of arson attacks affecting old warehouses. This is soon overtaken in importance when, after her next tennis lesson, Kate finds a dead body in the changing room. The arson attacks also turn into a murder enquiry when the charred body of a woman is found at the scene of the latest fire.

Kate is seconded to the Major Incident Team (MIT) dealing with the tennis centre corpse headed by Rod Neville who is obviously attracted to her. Another police officer, Graham Harvey would also like to pursue a relationship with Kate, if he wasn't already married and what about the handsome assistant curator who's digging for treasure trove in her garden?

POWER GAMES is a solid read, an entertaining police procedural with all the ends tied up neatly. It's quite a short book so it's probably inevitable that the cases Kate's involved in are interrelated. It seems from comments made in this book that Kate's lovelife is complicated and in fact she's involved with two of her colleagues in this episode. The narrator has a brave stab at doing the Birmingham accent and though it probably wouldn't fool a native it is indicative of the style of speaking in that area. I did find the male voices were a bit harder to differentiate probably because more of the characters were male. The female voices were a lot easier to separate. Overall I enjoyed both the book and the narration and will look out for the next one in the series, WILL POWER.

Karen Meek, England
October 2004