South Wales Argus interested in doing an article / interview on the novel! watch this space for news...

"A barn owl flew past, its white face cutting through the black shadow like a snowball, silent in flight."

'Jumbo House' restaurant, behind Art college

Closed down some years ago, unfortunately.

'Guardian'

Got to be worth using this location in a future Ed Wall P.I. novel. Sebastien Boyesen's huge sculpture is most impressive!

Where does Ed Wall live?

Stow Hill, between mosque and cathedral

The Wave

River Usk, opposite art college

St Woolos cathedral, opp. Severn Terrace

Severn Terrace, off Stow Hill

'The Church House', ex- 'The Six Bells'

Severn Terrace, off Stow Hill

Riverside pub

Mosque, Stow Hill (rear building)

Mosque, Stow Hill (front)

Art college

St Woolos cathedral steps

Art college - the copper roof

Review from amazon.co.uk

"4.0 out of 5 stars Two New Stars, 31 Jan 2012

By 

Greebo "Greebo" (Limbo, Kent) - See all my reviews

This review is from: We Go Down Slowly Rising (Ed Wall P.I.) (Kindle Edition)

This is an entertaining and at times even educational murder/mystery/thriller. There are two main characters in the novel, and we get a small insight into each of the supporting cast. But the stars are undoubtedly Wall and Newport.

Newport, South Wales, seems an odd place to set a murder mystery but why not! Rather than a sprawling metropolis, Newport comes across as a dark, claustrophobic, and paradoxically cosy place. A place that was once growing and relevant but now just exists, as do its denizens. And yet, it still inspires people to invest in works of public art and, it would seem, has its own many-faceted sub-culture. Something about the place still engenders feelings of civic pride. People love Newport. Wall loves Newport. Through this insight, and almost cinematic portrayal of Newport the author has made the melancholy city another central character to the novel.
Newport comes across as a very real place and this realism bleeds into the rest of the plot.

Rather than create a stereotypical Marlowesque, brooding, "cool", heartless P.I., the main character is infused with his own philosophy, periodic but brief insurgences into comic relief in the form of banter with his colleagues and his "love interest". He seems almost symbiotic with the city and when his nightly perambulations are interrupted it seems he can't wait to get his next fix. The supporting characters are given just enough fleshing-out that you want to know more about them. As the mysterious mass murderer is slowly revealed I found myself imagining how he could have come to be where he is.
Occasionally Wall will go off on a meandering, wistful tack; steering the reader away from the plot (they almost reminded me of the way Dr. Dorian has his day-dreams in Scrubs) but these seemingly irrelevant diversions quickly pass and serve to help us know the character more intimately.

To be candid, I found some of the early chapters meandered a little and it read more like a tourist guide to Newport than a novel. But this is small criticism from someone that has started writing his own novels and never finished them. What the hell do I know!!! I don't think that people like me should criticise this. More importantly; before I knew it I was involved in the plot and I didn't look back until I'd finished the book in about five sittings.
Who would like this book? I don't know! But I know this: I do.

I will recommend this book to other people. And I'm sure they would do the same.
Looking forward to the sequel! "