Published 12th March 2026 by riverrun.
From the cover of the book:
On a warm and pleasant evening in Oxford, gentle city of poets and scholars, rioters outside a hotel full of asylum seekers set a young refugee on fire. The city - the country - convulses in shock. Is this who we are? It's international news of the very worst kind, and the Chief Constable demands immediate and exemplary action in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The detectives leading the investigation fill him with misgivings, however: DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation), Thames Valley's detective pantomime horse, one Oxford-educated, the other Oxford-trailer park. He doesn't understand why they work together. 'Do they even get on?' 'Somehow that doesn't seem necessary,' their Superintendent replies.
Who burned the boy alive? Was it a far-right extremist? Was it an ordinary person who had simply gone along to watch and got caught up in the emotion? Could it even be one of the children who were there? Deploying a range of investigative skills, some standard, some unconventional and some frankly nuts, the Wilkinses do what they do: results with chaos. But when they discover that the victim was not an asylum seeker after all, or even a resident of the hotel, the whole investigation kicks into a completely different configuration.
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In the gentle city of dreaming spires tempers are running high, and not just because of the balmy temperatures. A riot breaks out in the street fronting a hotel housing asylum seekers. Amidst the violence a young refugee is set on fire - an act so appalling that it sends shockwaves through the whole country.
The Chief Constable is determined that the guilty parties be brought to justice as quickly as possible, but he is filled with misgivings about the detectives in charge of the investigation, despite the support of their Superintendent - DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation), an unlikely pairing that somehow seems to produce results, even if their methods are questionable.
Who killed the boy, and why? The Wilkinses are on the case...
DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation) are back in the fifth instalment of one of my absolute favourite police procedural series!
Sedate and scholarly Oxford is reeling from an act of violence that seems too horrific to be true, when a young man is burned to death in the car park of a hotel housing terrified asylum seekers. The resulting media storm brings pressure on the police to solve this case in double-quick time, but as DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation) track down the clues in their less than orthodox manner it seems the charred-beyond-recognition victim might not actually be who they thought he was. Meanwhile, a dangerous stranger, known only as 'Dogs', lurks in the shadows.
The investigation twists and turns in classic Mason style, as the unlikely duo - Oxford-educated, poster-boy Ray, and chaotic, but inspired Ryan from the-wrong-side-of-the-trailer-park - uncover surprising clues that hint at a very different kind of murder than racist retribution... with the help of a couple of welcome new characters. eager DS Williams and a quirky detective from across the Channel who adds a touch of joie de vivre.
Characteristically, Ryan goes off-piste into Oxford's underbelly, relying on his local knowledge to get the edge, whilst rubbing up authority-types the wrong way, and doing his best as single-dad to adorable 'little Ryan'. Intriguingly, it is the normally level-headed Ray who loses his cool somewhat in this investigation, under the mounting pressures of his personal life, whilst Ryan comes-up trumps - a heart-warming turn of affairs which I really enjoyed, particularly when it comes to how it impacts the Wilkinses' relationship.
Lots of lovely themes run through this cracking page-turner, especially around the very timely subject of the plight of asylum seekers and the rise of ugly far-right hatred, and complex relationships between father and son, which add so much intelligently employed depth. And the DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation) partnership continues to shine in all its left-of-field, darkly comic glory. Superb!
The Dangerous Stranger is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to riverrun for sending me a rpoof of this book in return for an honest review.
About the author:
Simon Mason has pursued parallel careers as a publisher and an author, whose YA crime novels Running Girl, Kid Got Shot and Hey, Sherlock! feature the sixteen-year-old slacker genius Garvie Smith.
A former Managing Director of David Fickling Books, where he worked with many wonderful writers, including Philip Pullman, he has also taught at Oxford Brookes University and has been a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford.
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