And now for something completely different. Or rather someone completely different. Meet DI Ryan Wilkins, slouching onto the Oxford crime scene in ill-fitting tracksuit trousers, mistaken for a teenage offender with that scowl on his youthful face, and just about to put his anger management problems on display.
"Chav. Poor white trash. Trailer-park ratboy." And this is just how Ryan Wilkins describes himself, to his new partner, DI Ray Wilkins. Yes, they're both called Wilkins. And just to add to the confusion, Ryan's infant son is also named Ryan.
A Killing in November is the freshest, most original police procedural I've come across since the first time I read the late and much missed Susie Steiner's first Manon Bradshaw novel. And, not incidentally, Mason's first foray into Oxford is the best new crime series since Manon. It is that good.
Inevitably, with its Oxford setting and its murder in the office of a College provost, comparisons will be made to Morse. Physically and temperamentally, and in their respective backgrounds, Morse and Ryan Wilkins could hardly be any different. Ray is closer to Morse, with his Balliol education and his classical music, while Ryan is more like the working class Lewis, albeit that he has none of Lewis's patience or measured approach to life and work. He is all sharp elbows, profanity and awkward aggression. He is in Oxford only because he left the Wiltshire force in disgrace after an incident with the Bishop of Salisbury.
But there are shadows of Morse in Ryan's fierce cleverness, his forensic mind and his relentless pursuit of the truth whatever the personal and professional cost.
And it all works rather brilliantly. The Oxford college setting is perfect for Ryan's first outing, emphasising his otherness and setting him up in belligerent opposition to the forces of tradition and establishment. And like the great Colin Dexter, Mason brings Oxford alive, in all its Dreaming Towers glory and gloom.
While the plot itself is interesting enough - a young woman is murdered in the Provost's office while the College is entertaining an Emirati dignitary it is hoping to extract cash from - it is Ryan's relationships with the other two Wilkins that nourish and sustain this book.
With Ray, "he's a bit up himself", he is abrasive and rude and a most unwelcome intrusion into a life and career that is ordered and predictable. "Let me do the talking," Rays says repeatedly, worried about who Ryan is going to upset next. Of course, the warnings go unheeded. There's a marvelous tension between them throughout,
And then with young Ryan, to whom he is single parent, he is only sensitivity and care. This is also a compelling, not to say touching, relationship.
A Killing in November is terrific. It's likely to win awards, and at some point, perhaps when Endeavour reaches the end of his road and something new is asked of Oxford, it will make great television.
My only disappointment was that the sequel is not published until January. Roll on 2023.