A briefcase is stolen from a public toilet by two inept criminals and one of them, Andy Bagnall, is so shocked to open the case and find inside four signet rings still attached to the hands that he takes the briefcase to DS Declan Miller. Meanwhile, it’s now five months since his wife Alex was killed and Miller’s still talking to her ghost while waiting for the Serious & Organised Crime Unit to solve her murder. ‘The Wrong Hands’ is a humorous police thriller with the main characters of ballroom-dancing DS Declan Miller and his rat-hating partner DS Sara Xiu. It’s well written with likeable characters and an unusual plot that’s had me laughing from page one. It’s been as enjoyable to read as the first in the series, ‘The Last Dance’, and a pleasure to have a police novel with a main character that doesn’t take himself too seriously.

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham is the second police mystery featuring Detective Miller, an unconventional, unique and criminally underestimated police man. Detective Miller has two problems, first the murder of his wife which is still under investigation and the other is the attaché case with dead man’s hands which has just been brought to his door. There follows a long chase to find out who is responsible for the severed hands and other deaths. I enjoyed reading this story about policing in Blackpool, ballroom dancing and criminals. Highly recommended

"The Wrong Hands", is the second novel in the new DS Declan Miller series by Mark Billingham. The series was launched in 2023, with "The Last Dance" and "The Wrong Hands", commences shortly after the finish after the first novel. Now, while it is not essential to read both books, I would recommend doing so in order to gain a good understanding of the relationships between Miller and his colleagues, especially Sara Ziu and the background to the murder of his wife Alex. This time around, we are familiar with the antics of Fred and Ginger (rats), and the crime fighting duo of Ratman and Posh gravy. While, Fred and Ginger did appear numerous times, and are growing on me, I was disappointed by the few mentions of "Ratman and Posh (gravy)". After all, when you have such a cool nickname, why not use it more often?

I'm a bit on the fence with this series because I don't generally enjoy books about gangland rivalries and putting out hits on each other, and I also didn't really like Miller in his first outing. I warmed to him a bit more in this one and I like the ongoing side plot of uncovering what happened to his wife, but I didn't find it particularly gripping.