Witty Little Knitter

Perhaps I shouldn't have read this book so quickly after the first one because that made it really obvious how similar the basic plot in both books is. The only differences were that in the first book he was drinking too much and now he's drinking too much and doing coke (he also messes much more things up...)
I wrote in my review for the first novel that I hope that the novels turn in a slightly more conventional crime-novel because 'watching how Jack self-destructs via alcohol' makes a good read for one book but not a whole series. The second didn't only fail to do this, it also reads like a carbon-copy of The Guards. Both start with somebody asking Jack to investigate suspicious deaths. Both times Jack is reluctant at first but eventually gives in, pokes around a bit and then asks his old police-colleague for information. Both times the old colleague tells him to leave it (in the first because everybody thinks the deaths are suicides, in the second because dead tinkers are apparently not important enough for the police to care). Both times somebody doesn't like Jack poking around and sends guys to beat him up (badly). Both times that doesn't stop Jack from poking around some more and he finds a solution somehow (the second time the solution is very somehow
I still like Jack as a character and I will give the next one a try as well but I don't have the feeling of 'I need to read it NOW' I had after finishing the first book.