Reviews The Wrong Hands by DJ Forrest

The Wrong Hands begins in the Police mortuary where the body of Rhett Seyers lies in two parts, on two tables.  It’s a precise cut, across the middle, cauterised.  Initial thoughts from the police were that he’d been killed elsewhere, drained of blood and then transported back to Happy Price supermarket on the Machen Estate, named after Arthur Machen, Welsh horror and fantasy writer, whose biggest fan was Aleister Crowley.  But Jack Harkness has a feeling that whatever did this was most certainly something from off planet.  But who would have a weapon that could do something like this, and Rhett was definitely not the first.

The enjoyable thing about Torchwood is that we already know the characters, so we can imagine the look on Jack’s face, the curt look on Gwen’s as she quells her desire to be sick at the sight of the severed body in the badly air conditioned room.  The commentary between the pair is witty and as you expect, both of them are chatting like siblings with just a hint of flirting from Jack and Gwen occasionally coming over as the bossy big sister.

The description of the Machen Estate is very typical of most estates throughout Britain it isn’t difficult to imagine the layout and the little supermarket where people buy all their shopping from.    There are a range of characters who keep the story moving forward, the yellow double decker bus and the teenager who sleeps there, the man who nervously enters the supermarket and is terrified of the gangs.  The large hulking thug with a black tshirt and the slogan Nobody Knows I’m a Lesbian in white lettering emblazoned on the front, seems to be the leader of the gang.  And a girl called Pam who looks haggard and tired, a single mum pushing a pram.

Gwen is quite snappy to Jack after arriving late for a stake out, her routine visit to the Sexual Health clinic confirming she’s fertile pushes the thought of having children from her mind in light of her job, and not sure where she would be in a few months, given the mortality rate of employees within Torchwood.  Children just didn’t figure in her plans anymore.  But it’s the banter between Jack and Gwen while they sit in the SUV monitoring the group of youths outside of Happy Price that caused my laughter to break the silence.  In asking about whether Gwen being fertile meant that she was considering children, Jack quite fancying himself as Uncle Jack.  Gwen still in her usual snappy mode that was evident in COE, put him straight on that thought instantly. 

Yet seeing the baby in the pram pushed by Pam Feerce brought all those broody thoughts back into her head and it takes a lot to push them away again.  A baby is physically draining on you, but nothing could have prepared Gwen for what was to happen when she relieved Pam Feerce of her duties.

The Wrong Hands is the third story in the book and prepares us quite well for the fourth by James Moran, picking up where The Wrong Hands left off.