The Politician: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via NetGalley
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: crime thriller, mystery
Series: DS George Cross #4
Pages: 416
Published by Atlantic Crime on March 3, 2026
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads
A ransacked room. A dead politician. A burglary gone wrong – or a staged murder?
THE DETECTIVE
DS George Cross loves puzzles – he's good at them – and he immediately spots one when he begins investigating the death of former mayor Peggy Frampton. It looks like a burglary that went horribly wrong to most but George can see what others can't – that this was murder.
THE PUZZLE
After her political career ended, Peggy became a controversial blogger whose forthright opinions attracted a battalion of online trolls. And then there's her an unfaithful husband and a gambling-addicted son. With yet more enemies in her past, the potential suspects are unending.
THE SUSPECTS
Cross must unpick the never-ending list of seedy connections to find her killer – but the sheer number of suspects is clouding his usually impeccable logic. He's a relentlessly methodical detective, but no case can last forever. And politics can be a dangerous game – especially for people who don't know the rules . . .
Perfect for fans of M.W. Craven, Peter James and Joy Ellis, The Politician is part of the DS George Cross thriller series, which can be read in any order.
My Review:
Just as yesterday’s book was the fourth book in ITS series, The Politician is the fourth book in Tim Sullivan’s DS Cross series – and it’s ALSO every bit as good as the three that came before it, The Dentist, The Cyclist and The Patient.
As all the books in this series – so far – are titled after the vocation or avocation of the victim, we’re not actually surprised that a politician is the victim of murder. These days, we might even be a bit surprised that it hasn’t happened sooner or more often, even within the confines of this series!
The late Peggy Frampton was a local politician in Bristol, a former mayor who was still active in local politics AND as a popular, even viral, online advice columnist – or ‘agony aunt’ as they’re sometimes called in Britain. Both jobs, as a politician AND as an advice columnist, provided plenty of opportunities to make enemies – which she certainly did.
Especially with the internet involved, where it seems like the worst of humanity takes the anonymity of social media as a license to show their asses – because on the internet, no one knows exactly who is being an ass.
Nevertheless, Peggy’s death seems to be both a surprise AND an open and shut case. It looks very much like an interrupted burglary gone wrong. A circumstance that would not require much poking around into Peggy’s friends and enemies.
Which doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of pressure on the Avon and Somerset police to solve the case. After all, Peggy was a prominent and popular local figure, and as a former mayor the Police Chief considers her murder to be an attack on “one of their own”.
DS George Cross, the department’s most successful investigator, never sees the case as open and shut. He sees the inconsistencies in the crime scene, even as his boss is rushing towards a quick – and incorrect – resolution. Which is what DCI Carson ALWAYS does – and why the Chief can’t leave the case in his hands even if Cross is the one doing all the real work.
George mostly ignores the office politicking and maneuvering going on around him, as his partner DS Ottey acts as his buffer and minder – in multiple directions. George remains focused on the puzzle that confronts them. Because this murder that so many wanted to declare open and shut and simply a burglary that went wrong, is complex and complicated and filled with too many coincidences that, for once in a mystery, actually are coincidences. Muddying the waters and getting in the way of solving the case.
For everyone except Cross. His process for getting to the heart of the matter may look painstaking, repetitious and even boring from the outside, but when he figures out whodunnit, conviction of all the ‘whos’ that ‘done it’ is a guarantee. Just the way that Cross needs it to be for justice to be served.
Escape Rating A+: I’ve fallen straight into every single book in this series so far, and at this point I have ZERO concerns that the rest are not going to be every single bit as good. Which is precisely why I decided months ago that whatever point in this series I happened to be at when my Blogo-Birthday Celebration came around, a book from this series would be one of the giveaways.
Because damn this series is awesome and I really want to share it. I’m ever so grateful to the US publishers, Atlantic Crime, for making the whole thing available in the US for the first time, as a run up to the Summer 2026 publication of the latest book in the series, The Tailor, on BOTH sides of the pond.
All of that being said, you might be wondering what makes this series so compelling. I’m going to try to explain, and likewise try not to be reduced to merely SQUEEING because it’s so good.
Most detectives, whether amateur or professional, tend not to believe in coincidences when it comes to solving a case. And they’re usually right to be skeptical. The thing about Cross is that he doesn’t “believe” much of anything at all, because belief generally requires a leap of faith that he’s more or less incapable of.
But he does believe in justice. More importantly for his investigations, he believes in facts and refuses to make assumptions and/or proceed on hunches. He doesn’t dismiss anything as “irrelevant” until he’s investigated them and is certain that they really are.
This is a case that is built on a series of coincidences – and its investigation is obfuscated by that same series of coincidences. Peggy Frampton is dead. That’s the one certain thing, the one central point. But every bit of evidence and/or information that surrounds her death seems to be in contradiction with every other bit. Her death appears to be the result of Peggy’s interruption of an amateur burglar. At the same time, a professional thief was down in her husband’s study, opening a sophisticated safe and stealing the literal family jewels. She’s made plenty of enemies both as a local political figure and as an agony aunt, which might explain her murder but and the amateur burglary but not the professional heist. Her husband is a serial cheater, her son is an inveterate gambler, and her daughter would like to have nothing to do with either of them. There are plenty of motives on all sides in the family, for the murder certainly and one or the other of the thefts but not both. She’s also drawn the ire of a local developer by standing in the way of his ‘legacy’ building project, and is being stalked by someone who believes he was defamed – and his life was ruined – by her advice to his would-be girlfriend
Then there’s an Albanian crime family lurking around the case on all sides, but none of those sides seem to touch Peggy herself or her murder. It all adds up to an extremely thorny thicket that most mysteries would coalesce into a single mess – but instead it stays messy and STILL gets solved.
Because this is a series, totaling 8 books in July and with seemingly – and thankfully – no end in sight, there’s also the through story that underpins the whole thing. Both the internal politicking – definitely small p in that version of the word – the way that Cross sometimes infuriates his colleagues and his bosses but still gets the job done and they still (generally) like him in spite of all that. AND the way that Cross moves through the world and how little, but how gradually, he keeps adapting to it and vice versa. We feel for his colleagues, AND we feel for him, even in situations where he doesn’t seem to feel at all. And yet he does and we do and it’s fascinating to see him continue to change, and grow, and figure out more about himself along the way.
So the investigation manages to be both painstaking and riveting – even though those two states don’t often manage to occur in the same circumstances. The politicking of Cross’ cop shop in this case was even more entertaining than usual. And Cross was forced to re-think pretty much everything about his own childhood in a way that was both organic to his character and managed to be both heartwarming and a bit heartbreaking at the same time.
I’m still utterly enthralled by DS George Cross, his work, his colleagues, and his way of dealing with a world that he is all too aware was not made for him. A world that he still manages to make work for him. If Cross’s story sounds as fascinating to you as it has been for me, one very lucky winner in this giveaway will get to pick the book of their choice from this series (including the newest if you’re willing to wait for it!) and see for themselves!
And the giveaways will continue over the weekend, as tomorrow marks Reading Reality’s official blogoversary and Sunday is my own birthday. Come back and check it out!
The Tailor
This is an excellent and engaging review of The Politician by Tim Sullivan. I really appreciate how you highlighted the complexity of the mystery and the layered nature of the investigation—especially the way multiple suspects and motives keep the reader guessing until the very end. The insight into DS George Cross’s analytical mindset and methodical approach adds depth and makes the story even more compelling.