Tag: book review

Just Finished Reading: Hamelin’s Child by DJ Bennett

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What the blurb says: “Michael Redford died on his seventeenth birthday – the night Eddie picked him up off the street, shot him full of heroin and assaulted him. 

Now he’s Mikey and he works for Joss. With streaked blond hair and a cute smile, he sleeps by day and services clients at night. Sometimes he remembers his old life, but with what he’s become now, he knows there is no return to his comfortable middle-class background.

Then he makes a friend in Lee. A child of the streets, Lee demands more from friendship than Mikey is prepared to give. But the police are closing in on them now and Mikey’s not sure anymore who he really is – streetwise Mikey or plain Michael Redford.”

Set in the seedy world of London’s drug and prostitution rings, this is a harrowing and gritty story. However, as brutal as parts of this novel are, I found that I kept reading on, wanting to find out if Mikey could turn things around, get out of the horrendous situation he found himself in, and get some of his old life back.

This is a well written, fast paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. It’s gritty and has adult content, but is never gratuitous.

If you’re looking for hard-hitting realism, this could be well worth a read.

[With thanks to the author DJ Bennet for my copy of Hamelin’s Child]

Review: Just What Kind of Mother Are You? by Paula Daly

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What the blurb says: “She’s gone and it’s your fault. You were supposed to be watching your best friend’s 13-year-old daughter, and now she’s missing. But you know she’s not just missing – she’s been taken. Because Lucinda is the second girl to be abducted within a fortnight. And the first was found on a busy high street, naked and severely traumatized. No one expects the next to be so lucky. You’re going to have to figure this out – who did it. Because if you don’t, then Lucinda will be next. And you’ll never forgive yourself.”

Lisa’s life is beyond hectic. With her family, her job at the animal shelter, and the demands of her friends she rarely has a minute to herself. It’s easy to empathize with her, and it’s easy to understand how she might overlook the odd detail. An odd detail that leads to her worst nightmares coming true.

Alternating point-of-view characters – Lisa, DC Joanne Aspinall, and the child abductor – show the situation from three different angles. Like all the characters in this book, they don’t feel like characters in a story, they feel like real live people.

As DC Aspinall investigates the case as part of her job, Lisa sets out to find the truth herself as a way to try and make amends to her friend. As a reader you get a real sense of the close-knit community in Troutbeck – a small ‘typically English’ village near Lake Windermere in the Lake District. But the close knit-ness can be a blessing and a curse, and some residents’ lives are not exactly as they might have seemed, as Lisa discovers.

From the outset, the story sets off at a rapid pace. For me it was a real page turner with plenty of twists and turns in the plot to keep me hooked. High stakes and high tension equalled high speed reading – I finished this book in 24 hours, unable to put it down until it was finished. It also made me want to go and adopt another animal from the local shelter.

What Kind of Mother Are You? Is a stunning debut novel.

If you enjoy fast-paced psychological thrillers with an emotional kick, then this is for you. Read it. Now!

Highly recommended.

 

[With thanks to the publishers, Bantam Press, for my copy of Just What Kind of Mother Are You?]

Review: Out of Sight Out of Mind by Evonne Wareham

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book cover

book cover

What the blurb says: “Madison Albi is a scientist with a very special talent – for reading minds. When she stumbles across a homeless man with whom she feels an inexplicable connection, she can’t resist the dangerous impulse to use her skills to help him.

J is a non-person – a vagrant who can’t even remember his own name. He’s got no hope, until he meets Madison. Is she the one woman who can restore his past?

Madison agrees to help J recover his memory, but as she delves deeper into his mind, it soon becomes clear that some secrets are better off staying hidden. “

Out of Sight Out of Mind might not be my usual type of read, but I found it really enjoyable.

It doesn’t fit neatly into a sub-genre bracket but, if you wanted to categorise it, I think it would be as romantic suspense with a dash of science fiction.

Told through the point-of-views of Madison, J and the shadowy people at ‘The Organization’, the reader is able to piece together information, alert to the increasing danger that Madison and J are unaware of until much later in the story. This adds an extra level of danger, up-ing the stakes, and keeping the reader on their edge of their seat, hoping that Madison will find out who, or what’s, behind J’s memory loss before it’s too late.

The main suspense in the story comes from the question: who is J? A mysterious (and rather sexy) character, he has no memory of his past, but he can remember how to navigate through London. When Madison tries to help him by reading his mind she encounters a wall that she’s unable to see through. As a research scientist at the top of her game, she throws all she’s got into the challenge of finding out just who J is.

As the relationship between Madison and J develops the reader gets to discover more about Madison’s past, and details about J’s life as he begins to remember things. There’s a lot of sexual tension between the two characters. The ‘will they, won’t they?’ question hangs over them for a large portion of the book as they both resist the attraction they feel for each other. This kept me hooked into the story, but I did, at times, want to scream at Madison to just kiss him and get on with it!

As Madison tries increasingly risky and unproven memory experiments, she manages to get past the wall and discover J’s sinister past. And that’s when the danger really escalates. After a gradual build in tension during the first two-thirds of the book, the final third races along to the action-packed finale.

My verdict: even if science fiction isn’t usually your thing, don’t let it put you off – this is a classy romantic suspense novel that’s definitely worth a read.

[My review copy of this novel was provided by Choc Lit publishers]

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BLOG TOUR STOP: Author Alison Morton drops by to talk about INCEPTIO

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If you like some alternative history with your crime, Alison Morton’s exciting debut novel ‘INCEPTIO’ could be just your type of read. Blending alternative historical and modern settings, the story follows Karen Brown as she searches to uncover the truth behind her connection to the mysterious Roma Nova, and discover (before it’s too late) why government enforcer, Jeffery Renschman, wants her dead.

To learn all about it, I’m pleased to welcome to Alison Morton, author of  ‘INCEPTIO’, who’s joining me today as part of her ‘INCEPTIO’ Blog Tour.

Alison, you’ve said that the idea for your new thriller ‘INCEPTIO’ came from your eleven-year-old self wondering What would have happened if women were in charge of the Romans? What was it that made you decide to write a novel along that theme?

Ever since my clever, ‘senior Roman nut’ father batted that question back at me by replying, “What do you think it would be like?” the idea has bubbled away in my mind. Ancient Rome morphed into a new type of Rome, a small rump state that survived the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire into the 21st century, but retained its Roman identity. And one where the social structure changed; women were going to be leading society. Despite a full range of life events keeping me busy (school, university, career, military, marriage, parenthood, business ownership, move to France), I couldn’t make the story go away.

But what actually started me writing INCEPTIO? One Wednesday I went to the local multiplex cinema with my husband. Thirty minutes into the film, we agreed it was really, really bad. The cinematography was good, but the plot dire and narration uneven.

‘I could do better than that,’ I whispered in the darkened cinema.

‘So why don’t you?’ came my husband’s reply.

The story that had filled my mind for years burst out through my fingers and ninety days later, I’d written 96,000 words, the first draft of INCEPTIO.

Your modern day protagonist, Karen Brown, is certainly up against the odds. What was your inspiration for creating her?

I had experience of living in different cultures and of serving in the military so could draw on both of those to seed some of the background of Karen’s story. But I wanted to take a modern Western young woman and not only make her contend with a nasty piece of work trying to eliminate her, but also unsettle her by having to adapt to a fundamentally different culture. She was going to be forced to change and grow, something I think readers like to see. More than anything, I wanted her to discover the person she was meant to be, something she certainly wasn’t going to do stuck in a city office.

With ‘INCEPTIO’ set in the alternate modern day and in the alternate historical setting of Roma Nova, what research did you do to ensure the two worlds felt so real?

The key to writing alternate history is plausibility. Firstly, it’s essential to know your history up to the point when the new alternate timeline diverges from the one we know. The next step is to work out in a historically logical way how the world would look after that divergence. Roma Nova’s existence couldn’t happen in a vacuum – in the course of sixteen hundred years it would have affected the rest of the world’s history.

New York is an Autonomous City in the Eastern United States (EUS) that the Dutch only left in 1813 and the British in 1865. Roma Nova had protected its New World trade interests in the late 1700s by brokering a political accord between the British colonies and the home government. The New World French states of Louisiane and Québec are ruled by Gouverneurs-Généraux on behalf of Napoléon VI, California and Texas belong to the Spanish Empire and the Western Territories are a protected area for the Indigenous Peoples.

These are only background details – I don’t develop them much further – the New World is only the setting for the first chapters. I only allude to it where necessary – nobody likes a long history lesson or an info dump in the middle of a pacey thriller – but I have it worked out in great detail in my head so I can live within that world while writing.

Secondly, you have to reinforce the settings with anchors to the reader’s own reality. Take a character working in law enforcement. Readers can accept cops being gentle or tough, enthusiastic, intellectual or world-weary. And whether corrupt or clean, they must act like a recognisable form of cop; they catch criminals, arrest and charge them and operate within a judicial system. Legal practicalities can differ significantly from those we know, but they must be consistent with that society while remaining plausible for the reader.

Almost every story hinges upon implausibility. Readers will engage with it and follow as long as the writer keeps their trust. One way to do this is to infuse, but not flood, the story with corroborative detail so that it verifies and reinforces the original setting the writer has introduced.

Even though INCEPTIO is an alternate history thriller set in the 21st century, the Roma Novan characters still allude to their past by saying things like ‘I wouldn’t be in your sandals when he finds out.’  There are honey-coated biscuits (honey was important for the ancient Romans) not chocolate digestives in the squad room. The Roma Novan family in the 21st century still includes not only the blood family but the entire household. This detail is where historic logic meets practical function of the roles the characters are playing.

If ‘INCEPTIO’ were made into a movie, which actors would you like to see playing your main characters?

A while ago, Meg Ryan and Val Kilmer (Carina and Conrad), with Judi Dench (Aurelia) and Alexander Siddig (Daniel). Today, probably Bryce Dallas Howard and Alexander Skarsgård, with Meryl Streep and Ben Barnes.

Tell us a little about your writing process, do you plot out the story events before sitting down to write, or do you drive right in and see where the story takes you?

I’m probably 20% ‘plotter’ and 80% ‘pantser’.  I start with my characters, their values and motivations, then float some story ideas involving them around in my head. I like to interweave a crisis facing Roma Nova with a personal crisis between the characters and in their lives. Nobody comes out of the story in the same state they went in.

By then, I know where the story starts and where it has to finish. Maybe now is the time to confess that only one of the three books I’ve written actually has exactly the ending I first thought of!  Next, structure. I’ve evolved a thirty-line system; Line 1 is the inciting incident, Lines 6, 14 and 22 (or nearabouts) the three crisis points, Line 27 or 28 the ‘black moment’ and Line 30 the resolution. I fill in some of the lines in between with likely scenes, but often leave some blank. It’s a process to imprint the plot on my conscious mind so that the unconscious or creative one has some hooks to hang the story threads on. All the rest in between just swirls around in my head and only emerges as I’m writing.

How do you organise your writing day: do you have a favourite time and place to write?

On a typical day I write most mornings after a short spurt on social media, and do domestic stuff in the afternoons or depending where I am in the book some research. In the evening, I’ll write a few more lines and dip into Facebook and Twitter.

If I’m editing, I tend to work straight through, with a short lunch break as I’m totally immersed. Strange, isn’t it? I can draft in paragraphs, but prefer to edit in long stretches. Proofing is another question – I do that in short bursts because of the concentration needed.

My books centre around a big conflict, dangerous assignment or saving the world story within the Roma Nova environment. Luckily, I’ve breathed in history since I was a kid. I even ‘went back to school’ to take a history masters thirty years after my first degree. So I have enough of a grounding in the aspects of Roman history I want to draw on to start the story. I write the basic dynamics of a scene, then if I need to check a detail, I mark the text up in bright blue which gives me a visual signal to come back and research that item.

What have you learnt through writing this novel that you’d like to pass on to aspiring crime thriller writers?

Keep a really big surprise for the end, but make sure you leave some clues. Readers hate what’s known in SFF as ‘alien space bats’, more properly a deux ex machina where a surprise solution or resolution is parachuted in. Try to nudge the reader into thinking about what’s going on behind the characters’ motivation.  In INCEPTIO, the heroine doesn’t know why Renschman pursues her with such persistence. We know he’s a bad guy, but why is he so vindictive? Read the book and you’ll find out!

Structure and keep track of time so you ensure that the right people know or don’t know about events or vital clues. The mobile phone has ruined many traditional opportunities for suspense and tension so writers have to be more inventive these days.

My last tip is to keep the reader in the loop. I love surprising and disconcerting the reader as the plot twists and turns, but I try hard to ensure the reader knows what’s happening. As a reader myself, I hate not knowing who’s speaking for pages and pages just to make the writing look clever.

And what’s next for you, are you planning your next novel, or already well into the writing of it?

I’m working on book two of the Roma Nova series, PERFIDITAS (Betrayal). I drafted it a little while ago, but it’s been ‘in the drawer’ for several months. It’s a thriller again, this time the whole Roma Novan society faces collapse as well as pushing the heroine to a personal crisis. I’m looking forward to reading it again after many months away!

Thank you, Alison, for dropping by today and for sharing your writing secrets.

For more about Alison Morton and INCEPTIO hop on over to her website at: http://alison-morton.com/

INCEPTIO is the first in a series of exciting alternate history thrillers set in mysterious Roma Nova. Published by SilverWood Books, it is available now in Paperback and eBook.

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Review: Retribution by Adrian Magson

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What the blurb says: “An atrocity that allegedly took place under Harry’s watch in Kosovo in 1999 returns to haunt him when he receives a summons from an old UN contact. A lone assassin is tracking down all those who were present that fateful night, despatching his victims with cold, skilful efficiency. Who is he and why does he want revenge? If he is to uncover the identity of this ruthless killer and stay alive in the process, Harry must uncover what really happened in Mirovica back in 1999.”

I love a good action thriller and this novel doesn’t disappoint.

Harry Tate, an ex-M15 hunter now working in the private sector, doesn’t hang around. He’s a dynamic character, utterly focused on getting the job done, and with a strong moral compass. Hired to stop a potential terrorist plot and find the lone assassin picking off all those present at a UN compound on a specific night in 1999, Harry’s moral code is challenged when he discovers the horror of the crime the assassin is avenging. Pragmatic and logical, but prepared to do what’s necessary for justice, Harry is faced with a difficult dilemma.

What I especially like about this story is that Magson creates an utterly ruthless assassin, known as Kassim, yet although he commits a series of murders across the timeline of the novel, as a reader I found him both chilling and empathetic. That said, whilst Kassim certainly racks up the highest body count, the true title of ‘villain’ for this story really rests with another character (which I won’t name or it will spoil the story for you).

From London, across Europe and over to the States, Harry follows the clues, and the bodies. With the tension tightening notch by notch through each chapter, by the time you’re heading for the end the pace is breathlessly rapid and, as a reader, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

A joy to read.

Highly Recommended.

 

Review: Tortured Spirits by Gregory Lamberson

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Tortured Spirits cover image

Tortured Spirits cover image

A guest review by YA Science Fiction Author, Imran Siddiq

What the blurb says: “The sign on Jake Helman’s office door says Private Investigator, but this ex-cop’s profession is more complicated than spying on cheating spouses. Over the course of two years, Jake has battled demons, zombies, even a cosmic monster—and he has paid dearly, both physically and emotionally, for his exploits.

Now on a quest to save his best friend’s soul, Jake embarks on his greatest and most terrifying odyssey yet: from the streets of New Orleans to the nightclubs of Miami to the jungles of Pavot Island, where undead slaves harvest narcotics for a ferocious dictator.

But this time Jake isn’t alone. Maria Vasquez, a beautiful NYPD homicide detective, joins him to rescue her former partner. With no backup and limited resources, Jake and Maria battle voodoo overlords, military troops, and an army of zombies. What will prove deadlier to Jake: the addictive drug called Black Magic, the return of an old enemy, or a vengeful demon plotting against him? Tortured Spirits is an action-packed, gore-soaked, supernatural thrill ride that will leave horror fans gasping for Jake Helman’s return.”

This is my first read as part of the Jake Helman Series, and although Tortured Spirits is #4, the method of delivery gives enough for a newbie not to feel out of their depths or lost within the detail.  The author, Gregory Lamberson, guides the reader around what Jake already knows teases us with glimpses of the past. Sufficient backstory at relevant stages never feels like an infer dump and made reading this rather comfortable.

Jake Helman is a maverick of a one-man-band whose style is admirable when being considerate, but highly expressive when he needs to deliver the smack on goons and zombies. Heck – did i just mention zombies? Indeed; Tortured Spirits is a Supernatural Crime novel, but don’t let the supernatural aspect put you off.

Back to Jake – he can be described as a James Bond (likes the ladies) crossed over with Nathan Drake (of Uncharted Games due to his sense of adventure) and a bit of mystery solving Columbo (the glass eye). Scenes of extensive dialogue, although sometimes difficult to follow as to who is speaking, are rich with personality and bring across the risks associated within the novel … like zombies … and hellacious witchcraft. A fun part was Jake’s relationship with Edgar, his friend who’s been turned into a Raven. Again, don’t be put off by the supernatural aspect, because the human nature of caring for and carrying the bird around everywhere that he goes was a nice touch.

My only criticism is in places I received too much detail about the clothing Jake wore, and that zombies are referred to as zonbies. It takes some getting used to.

The crux of the novel is how Jake finds himself having to uncover a plot to save a man he cares little about in exchange for a solution to return the Raven back into Edgar (human form). What follows is gore of immense blood-appeal with scenes that will have you turning quicker than you can make contact with the page. Take out the supernatural aspect and this novel possesses a guest cop chase of uncovering crime, and some of the exchanges between the good and the bad took me back into top shows like NYPD and CSI. This isn’t your average Buffy – let’s grab some holy water and down these zombies – oh no, Jake needs to be cunning to win and … survive. Believe me, the author puts Jake is some gut-wrenching situations.

Gregory delivers a well written novel that is worthy of a read by any Crime/Thriller enthusiast, and adds his own spin on age-old notions; like using DNA from simply handing over a business card to place Jake under the control of witchcraft.

Overall, the world created and the glimpses into past events makes me want to read the previous entries to the series.

Recommended.

Tortured Spirits by Gregory Lamberson is available now.

About the Reviewer: Imran Siddiq seeks comfort at his desk with writing, drawing, blogging and socialising. His debut YA Science Fiction novel: Disconnect is on release now. To find out more, please visit: http://www.imranwrites.com

 

Review: The Circus by James Craig

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The Circus cover image

The Circus cover image

What the blurb says: “When the body of journalist Duncan Brown is found in the back of a rubbish truck, Inspector John Carlyle is thrown into the middle of a scandal that threatens to expose the corrupt links between the police, the political establishment and the hugely powerful Zenger media group.

Hunting down Brown’s killer, Carlyle finds himself going head-to-head with his nemesis, Trevor Miller. A former police officer turned security advisor to the Prime Minister, Miller has dirty money in his pockets and other people’s blood on his hands. Untouchable until now, he is prepared to kill again to protect his position, and having failed once already to dispose of Carlyle, he is not prepared to slip up again …”

I couldn’t help but warm to Inspector Carlyle. He’s a good bloke, battling a heavy workload in order to do a good job and solve his cases. And he’s got a lot on his plate, a targeted bomb that kills a teenager, a missing girl, and the murder of journalist Duncan Brown.

As Carlyle digs deeper into each case, he discovers a web of crime and corruption that stretches far into the halls of power in London. What made the story seem especially realistic for me is that it covers a number of themes that mirror much of what has happened in recent times, like phone hacking, and doesn’t shy away from showing a rather seedy side to journalism, politics and police work.

This is the fourth book in the bestselling Inspector Carlyle series. It’s a gritty story, set in a sinister London, and one that will have the reader trying to puzzle out both who did it and why did it.

I think fans of police procedurals will certainly enjoy this one.

 

The Circus by James Craig is out now, published by C&R Crime.

 

In the Spotlight: CHALK VALLEY by D.L. Johnstone

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kindle cover CHALK VALLEY

kindle cover CHALK VALLEY

What the blurb says: “In a remote mountain valley in British Columbia, a human monster preys on innocent lives.  After teenagers discover the body of a missing girl in Chalk Valley, searchers find the remains of two more victims secreted deep in the woods.  A serial killer is at work.

Chalk Valley police detective John McCarty is picked to lead a task force to find the murderer, but inexperience, politics and McCarty’s own inner demons quickly overwhelm him and the investigation falters.

Meanwhile, on a dark, lonely highway many miles from Chalk Valley, RCMP Sergeant Dave Kreaver comes across a van crashed at the side of the road. The driver is anxious to leave the scene, but Kreaver discovers an unconscious teenaged girl in the van. Kreaver feels in his gut that the driver could be the serial killer everyone’s looking for, but his inquiries are ignored. The task force is in well over its head, buried by thousands of leads and potential suspects. His supervisors tell him to back off and let the task force do its job.

 

Kreaver finds himself in a deadly cat and mouse game with a murderous psychopath, a race against time with innocent victims in play. Operating alone and without official sanction, can he stop the Chalk Valley Killer before he claims more lives?”

This complex, multi-agency and multi-location police procedural has the big picture feel of a television show like The Wire. Told through the point of views of a range of characters involved in the case – including police officers, journalists, victims and the killer – it shows how incidents that at first seem unconnected all fit together into a web of violence and terror.

The twists and turns of the story sprint along but there’s still plenty of procedural detail to satisfy fans of the sub-genre. With the killers point of view included, readers discover their identity before the police have collaborated all of the evidence – this ups the tension for the reader as you will on the various police departments, hoping that they’ll find the connections before it’s too late.

With a dramatic finale and a poignant ending this is a story well worth checking out.

D.L. Johnstone lives in the Toronto area. He’s co-authored several medical research publications and is a semi-dedicated fitness freak with a second degree black belt in Taekwondo. CHALK VALLEY is his debut novel.

You can find out more about him and his writing at www.dljohnstonewriter.com

Review: The Poacher’s Son by Paul Doiron

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Stunningly atmospheric: an action packed and emotionally powerful thriller

What the blurb says: “Maine game warden Mike Bowditch returns home one evening to find an alarming voice from the past on his answering machine: his father, Jack, a hard-drinking womanizer who makes his living poaching illegal game. An even more frightening call comes the next morning from the police: they are searching for the man who killed an esteemed local cop the night before – and his father is their prime suspect. Jack has escaped from police custody, and only Mike believes that his tormented father might not be guilty.

Now, shunned by colleagues who have no sympathy for the suspected killer, Mike must come to terms with his haunted past. He knows first-hand of his father’s brutality, but is he capable of murder? Desperate and alone, the only way for Mike to save his father is to find the real culprit.”

The Poacher’s Son is Paul Doiron’s debut novel and the first in the Mike Bowditch series. It won the Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel.

Mike Bowditch stands for everything his father doesn’t: honour, care of the natural world, and the overriding need to ‘do the right thing’. He’s carved out his own niche in the world as a game warden and even when his relationship doesn’t work out the way he’d hoped due to the demands of his work, he’s still determined and passionate about his job.

But, just like years before when Mike was just a kid staying with his father for the summer, his father’s actions pull Mike into a world that he doesn’t want to be involved in. Torn between the loyalty he feels towards a father than never earned it, and the job he loves and colleagues he respects, Mike is forced to make increasingly difficult choices in order to ensure his father gets a fair deal.

As well as a plot thick with twists and turns, this book showcases the forests and natural habitats of Maine so vividly that the setting of the story becomes almost like a character in its own right. What’s great about Paul Doiron’s writing is that you get a terrific sense of place without any slowing of the story.  With a cast of engaging characters, each with their own very particular view on the situation Mike finds himself in, and many with a reason to not be entirely truthful about what happened, I found myself rooting for Mike from the beginning.

Action packed and emotionally powerful, this atmospheric thriller had me gripped.

Highly recommended.

 

Review: GHOSTMAN by Roger Hobbs

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GHOSTMAN cover image

GHOSTMAN cover image

A rapid paced, nail-bitingly tense action thriller

When a casino robbery in Atlantic City goes horribly wrong, the man who orchestrated it is forced to call in a favour from someone occasionally called Jack. Only a few people know this man exists, some believe he’s dead and none know his true identity. Those are the closely guarded secrets of an exceptionally trained, experienced and talented criminal.

But as he struggles to clean up the mess left from the bungled heist, Jack finds himself increasingly more visible. With the FBI and other interested, and deadly, people on his tail, he’s forced to use every ounce of his skill, ingenuity and instincts to survive.

From the opening page this story hurtles along at a breathless pace. Jack is a mysterious character. Able to change his appearance, his voice and his persona in a moment, he is a true master of disguise.

He’s attractive, smart and although more than capable of defending himself, he only uses violence when he deems it necessary (which in the course of the book is quite often). He also translates classics into English as a hobby when he’s not on a job. Although you know he’s a criminal, he never seems entirely bad, and has his own moral code by which he operates.

At the start of the novel Jack reluctantly agrees to sort out the aftermath of a bungled casino heist as repayment of an old favour to the criminal mastermind Marcus. His brief is simple – find Marcus’ missing man and find the stolen cash.

But as he investigates the operation, discovering what actually happened outside the casino that morning, and who else is after the money, Jack realises there’s a whole lot more to the situation than he first realised. Add into the mix the bright and dynamic FBI agent Rebecca Blacker, and the mysterious and deadly criminal kingpin ‘The Wolf’ and soon Jack is fighting just to stay alive.

This rapid paced, nail bitingly tense action thriller has plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. This is a distinctive debut by 24-year-old novelist Roger Hobbs.

Highly recommended.

 

GHOSTMAN by Roger Hobbs is published in hardback by Bantam Press on 14th February 2013.