Tag: police procedural

CTG Reviews: Time of Death by Mark Billingham

Leave a comment

Unknown

To celebrate TIME OF DEATH being published in paperback today I thought I’d re-run my review …

What the blurb says: “The Missing: Two schoolgirls are abducted in the small, dying Warwickshire town of Polesford, driving a knife into the heart of the community where police officer Helen Weeks grew up, and from which she long escaped. But this is a place full of secrets, where dangerous truths lie buried.

The Accused: When it’s splashed all over the press that family man Stephen Bates has been arrested, Helen and her partner Tom Thorne head to the flooded town to support Bates’ wife – an old school friend of Helen’s – who is living under siege with two teenage children and convinced of her husband’s innocence.

The Dead: As residents and media bay for Bates’ blood, a decomposing body is found. The police believe that they have their murderer in custody, but one man believes otherwise. With a girl still missing, Thorne sets himself on a collision course with local police, townsfolk – and a merciless killer.”

So, declarations first, I have to confess that I’m a huge fan of Mark Billingham’s Tom Thorne series and so I couldn’t wait to read this book when it came out in hardback.

This story takes Tom out of his usual city surroundings on a visit to the countryside for a romantic break with his partner Helen Weeks. But it doesn’t stay a relaxing holiday for long. When Helen recognises the wife of the man accused of the abduction of two schoolgirls from a small Warwickshire community, their holiday is cut short as they head to Polesford for Helen to support her old school friend who is in the grips of a suffocating media presence, and whose community, and social media, is vilifying her and her family.

With Helen preoccupied with her friend and acting increasing distant, Tom does what fans of the series might anticipate – he starts to look at the facts of the case, at first piquing the interest of the local police, and then (as he spots the holes in their evidence and theories) becoming an irritant. Once he realises the investigation isn’t as thorough, and the case as well proven, as the locals are saying, he’d determined to find out the truth behind the abductions and get to the remaining missing girl before it’s too late.

Taking Thorne out of his London comfort zone is genius move. He hates the countryside, especially the thought of antiquing and walking, but through the course of his (unofficial) investigation he has to embrace everything the area has to throw at him – floods, pigs, a lot of characterful locals, and the kind of claustrophobic environment where everyone knows each other’s business.

Being the outsider, and not officially involved in the case, he’s able to follow his instincts unchecked, and starts to find he’s actually rather enjoying his holiday. He even manages to entice his friend, and talented Pathologist, Phil Hendricks, out from the city to help him. They still haven’t really spoken about what happened on Bardsey Island (in the previous book The Bones Beneath) and the personal cost to Phil (and Thorne) that resulted, but their friendship is a strong as ever and their banter is, as always, a joy to read.

TIME OF DEATH is filled with mystery and intrigue from the abduction case Tom is investigating, it also layers on a growing sense of unease that coming back to the place she grew up has unearthed some deeply buried secrets that Helen has kept well hidden. The consequences of both will have ramifications for Helen and Tom.

Masterfully written, this is another fabulous instalment in what I think is the best police procedural series around today.

This was one of my top reads of 2015, and is an absolute must read for crime fiction fans.

 

You can find out more about Mark Billingham by hopping over to his website at www.markbillingham.com and be sure to follow him on Twitter @MarkBillingham

TIME OF DEATH is out now in paperback. You can buy it from Waterstones here, or from Amazon here

 

[with thanks to Sphere for my copy of Time of Death]

CTG Reviews: STASI CHILD by David Young

2 Comments

image001

The fabulous STASI CHILD, written by debut author David Young, is published in paperback next week on the 11th February.

To celebrate, I’m re-running my review …

What the blurb says: “East Berlin, 1975: Questions are dangerous. Answers can kill. When murder squad head Oberleutnant Karin Müller is called to investigate a teenage girl’s body found riddled with bullets at the foot of the Berlin Wall, she imagines she’s seen it all before. But when she arrives she realises this is a death like no other: it seems the girl was trying to escape – but from the West.

Müller is a member of the People’s Police, but in East Germany her power only stretches so far. The Stasi want her to discover the identity of the girl, but assure her the case is otherwise closed – and strongly discourage her asking questions. The evidence doesn’t add up, and it soon becomes clear that the crime scene has been staged, the girl’s features mutilated. But this is not a regime that tolerates a curious mind, and Müller doesn’t realise that the trail she’s following will lead her dangerously close to home.

The previous summer, on Rügen Island off the Baltic Coast, two desperate teenage girls conspire to escape the physical and sexual abuse of the young workhouse they call home. Forced to assemble furniture packs for the West, the girls live out a monotonous, painful and hopeless life. Stowing away in the very furniture they are forced to make, the girls arrived in Hamburg. But their celebrations are short-lived as they discover there is a price on freedom in the DDR …”

STASI CHILD is David Young’s debut novel and the first in the Oberleutnant Karin Müller series.

Striving for justice whatever the cost is second nature to Müller. She’s a determined, strong and courageous detective, following the evidence and questioning anomalies even when warned off by some very powerful and threatening people. Defying instructions, she leads her team to find the truth hidden beneath the propaganda and cover-ups. But despite her hard-line stance in her job, in her personal life her relationships are imploding and as she juggles the conflict at home with an increasingly tense situation at work, it’s not long before Müller herself could be in danger.

Chillingly authentic and set in our recent-past, this pacey page-turner of a police procedural is filled with fear, power struggles and intrigue making it one hell of a debut novel.

To find out more about David Young follow him on Twitter @djy_writer

To pre-order the paperback (or buy the kindle edition) of STASI CHILD from Amazon click here

To pre-order STASI CHILD from Waterstones click here

The EVIL UNSEEN Blog Tour: CTG Reviews EVIL UNSEEN by Dave Sivers

1 Comment

 

eBook_Cover

What the blurb says: “EVEN THE DEAD HAVE THEIR SECRETS. A reformed teenage gang leader is gunned down in cold blood and an angry DS Dan Baines, who knew the victim well, reckons he knows who is responsible. But his boss, DI Lizzie Archer, wants to know the identity of the mystery man who died with him – and whether he was intended victim or innocent bystander. When an officer from the National Crime Agency turns up and declares the case off limits to Archer and her team, it’s clear that there is more going on than meets the eye. Several conflicting agendas are in play and the body count is rising. And Archer and Baines realise that the only people they can truly trust are each other.”

 

When two people are gunned down in the street in the market town of Aylesbury, DS Dan Baines and his boss, DI Lizzie Archer, are determined to find who has brought gun crime to the Buckinghamshire town. But the case is more than just work for DS Baines, he has been something of a mentor to the younger victim, and the loss hits him hard, bringing losses in his past hurtling back into the present and haunting him day and night. DI Lizzie Archer is battling problems of her own, trying to carve out a new life in Aylesbury after relocating from the MET to escape London. As the two detectives piece the evidence together, and the body count continues to rise, they start to suspect that some of those engaging in criminal activity could be amongst their colleagues.

DI Lizzie Archer is a determined and dynamic detective who, having overcome personal injury, is building herself a new life from scratch. DS Dan Baines is a committed detective who is battling the demons of the past that, in this book, are threatening to overcome him. They make for an engaging duo.

It’s not often I get to read a crime book set in a place I know well, so it was a real treat for me to read this and picture exactly where in Aylesbury and the surrounding area the scenes were set.

EVIL UNSEEN is pacey story, with plenty of twists and intrigue to keep the reader guessing until the finale.

Perfect for fans of police procedurals.

 

EVIL UNSEEN is out now. To buy the book from Amazon click here

To find out more about Dave Sivers hop on over to his website here and be sure to follow him on Twitter @DaveSivers

And be sure to check out all the other fabulous stops on the EVIL UNSEEN Blog Tour …

Blog Tour Flyer 4 JPEG

CTG Reviews: DEAD PRETTY by David Mark

Leave a comment

Unknown

What the blurb says: “Hannah Kelly has been missing for nine months. Ava Delaney has been dead for five days. One girl to find. One girl to avenge. And DS Aector McAvoy won’t let either of them go until justice can be done. But some people have their own ideas of what justice means …”

The latest book in the DS McAvoy series is one hell of a read.

DS McAvoy has been haunted by the missing girl Hannah Kelly ever since her disappearance was reported. Unable to get the case from his mind, he’s taken to visiting the last place she was seen on his days off, taking his wife, Roisin, and his young family along with him.

Meanwhile, his boss, DSU Trish Pharaoh, is battling troubles of her own. The high-profile release of Reuben Hollow from prison after the Court of Appeal overturned his murder conviction is bringing her professional reputation into disrepute, and some dodgy-looking thugs are hanging around her home looking to call in favours that her now disabled husband can’t deliver on.

When another young woman is found murdered, and McAvoy and Pharaoh are called in to run the investigation, the pair become ever more disturbed as they start to spot parallels with earlier cases. But as the evidence mounts up – sending the duo in different directions – the case becomes increasingly personal to both of them. As they unravel the sequence of events that led to murder, the danger to them and their families increases with dramatic consequences.

The two main characters – the gentle family man of a Detective Sergeant, Aector McAvoy, and determined, outwardly confident, yet internally doubting, DSU Trish Pharaoh, really make this book something special. The close third-person perspective gets the reader deep into their thoughts, and the present tense narration gives the action an immediacy that had me flying through the story.

As well as a twisty-turny plot and some great characters, there is a poetic, gritty darkness to David Mark’s writing – it’s brutally unflinching yet really rather lyrical – which makes this book a real delight to read.

Perfect for fans of police procedurals.

 

DEAD PRETTY is published on the 28th January 2016 (tomorrow!). To buy a copy from Amazon click here

To find out more about David Mark and his books hop over to his website here and follow him on Twitter @davidmarkwriter

 

[With thanks to Mulholland Books for my copy of DEAD PRETTY]

CTG Reviews: AFTER YOU DIE by Eva Dolan

2 Comments

Unknown

What the blurb says: “A gas leak in a picturesque Fenlands village leads to the discovery of two bodies – a mother brutally murdered, and her severely disabled teenage daughter left to die of neglect. Dawn Prentice was already known to the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit, the previous summer she had logged a number of calls detailing the harassment she and her severely disabled teenage daughter were undergoing. Now she is dead – stabbed to death whilst Holly Prentice has been left to starve upstairs. DS Ferreira, only recently back serving on the force after being severely injured in the line of duty, had met with Dawn that summer. Was she negligent in not taking Dawn’s accusations more seriously? Did the murderer even know that Holly was helpless upstairs while her mother bled to death?

Whilst Ferreira battles her demons, determined to prove she’s up to the frontline, DI Zigic is drawn into conflict with an official seemingly resolved to hide the truth about one of his main suspects. Can either officer unpick the truth about mother and daughter, and bring their killer to justice?”

AFTER YOU DIE is the third book in the Zigic and Ferreira series, and a stunning addition to a crime fiction series that is going from strength to strength.

DI Zigic and DS Ferreira are a great duo, but the explosive events at the end of book two – TELL NO TALES – have left them scarred and battling doubts and fears that they both try to hide from those around them and, at times, from each other. Ferreira is determined to prove she’s fit and well enough to be working a murder case, and Zigic is feeling the pressure of juggling work with the demands of a young family and increasing concerns about his work partner’s ability to cope.

The murder of Dawn Prentice, and the knowledge that her teenage daughter was left to die alone, impacts them both and as they start investigating, and unravelling the complex layers of hurt, guilt and secrets surrounding what happened to Dawn and Holly Prentice, both detectives find themselves becoming more emotionally involved in the case than usual.

Beautifully written and grittily complex, through following Zigic and Ferreira’s investigation this sensitively nuanced story explores the impact of the events on the shocked community, while exposing a myriad of dark truths hidden behind closed doors and twitching curtains.

This gripping thriller shines a spotlight on very real issues – including cyber bullying and assisted right-to-die – in a way that it makes it impossible to look away. Emotive and powerful, AFTER YOU DIE is a stunning read that will stay with you long after you’ve read the final page.

AFTER YOU DIE is police procedural crime fiction at its best – an absolute must-read.

 

AFTER YOU DIE is out now. To buy the book from Amazon click here

And find out more about Eva Dolan and the Zigic and Ferreira series pop on over to Random House’s website here and be sure to follow Eva on Twitter @eva_dolan

 

[many thanks to Harvill Secker for my copy of AFTER YOU DIE]

#BLOODSTREAM Blog Tour: CTG reviews BLOODSTREAM by Luca Veste

Leave a comment

Unknown

Today I’m excited to be hosting a stop on Luca Veste’s BLOODSTREAM Blog Tour. Published on 22nd October by Simon & Schuster, BLOODSTREAM is the third novel in the Murphy and Rossi crime fiction series.

Here’s what the blurb says: “Social media stars Chloe Morrison and Joe Hooper seem to have it all – until their bodies are found following an anonymous phone call to their high-profile agent. Tied and bound to chairs facing each other, their violent deaths cause a media scrum to descend on Liverpool, with DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi assigned to the case.

Murphy is dismissive, but the media pressure intensified when another couple is found in the same manner as the first. Only this time the killer has left a message. A link to a private video on the internet, and the words ‘Nothing stays secret’. It quickly becomes clear that more people will die; that the killer believes secrets and lies within relationships should have deadly consequences …”

DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi of the Major Crimes Unit, Liverpool North have had a quieter time of things since the events of The Dying Place, but that all changes when married social media stars “ChloJoe” are found dead in an derelict house miles from their home. As the media whip up a frenzy around the case, Murphy and Rossi hand the missing persons case of teenager Amy Maguire that they’re working on back to Liverpool South and immerse themselves in the investigation. But what at first looks like a one-off celebrity targeted killing soon becomes apparent as just the start of the killer’s plan.

As more couples are targeted, and the secrets and lies hidden in their relationships are revealed, the killer takes to using social media to spread their ‘message’. Despite the body count rising, Murphy and Rossi struggle to find evidence to lead them to this highly prepared killer.

Meanwhile, Murphy is harbouring a secret of his own – missing teenager Amy Maguire may be connected to him in a way he’s only recently discovered. He hasn’t told his wife, Sarah, yet. And he doesn’t know anything of the secret she’s keeping from him.

With this particular killer on the loose anyone in Liverpool hiding secrets and lies could be a target.

This third book in the Murphy and Rossi series is a real page-turner of a read. The strong sense of place and vivid descriptions bring Liverpool to life, and Murphy and Rossi make for a great crime-solving duo. In this book their personal lives are explored further as Rossi embarks on the beginnings of a more serious relationship, and Murphy struggles to rebuild his friendship with Jess whose son he was unable to save in The Dying Place.

The story also brings into sharp focus how the media, and social media, feed into and off violent crime, and how the amount of media coverage, and the way individuals are portrayed, is dependant on the perceived value of that person and their death to ratings and circulation figures. Veste sensitively handles the impact of this on the grieving families, and the aftermath of the media’s ‘halo and horns’ approach to the murder victims on those left behind.

A dark, gritty and disturbingly sinister police procedural – BLOODSTREAM is a real must-read for crime fiction fans.

You can find out more about Luca Veste and his books at www.lucaveste.com and follow him on Twitter @lucaveste

To buy the BLOODSTREAM from Amazon, follow this link

Also, be sure to check out all the other fabulous stops on the BLOODSTREAM Blog Tour …

CSOwbBzWIAAwUrv

 

 

 

 

 

STASI CHILD Blog Tour: CTG interviews debut author David Young

Leave a comment

image001

I’m delighted to welcome David Young, author of STASI CHILD, to the CTG blog and to be hosting his blog tour stop today. STASI CHILD (published by Twenty7) is David’s debut novel and is the winner of the PFD 2014 Crime Prize. He’s popped along to see us today to chat about the book, his writing process, and his route to publication.

So to the questions!

Your debut, STASI CHILD, is out this month. Can you tell us a bit about it?

It’s a crime thriller – part historical crime, part police procedural, part thriller, and I guess a dash of Cold War politics to boot. What it’s not is a traditional Cold War spy thriller – although it’s set in the era of the Cold War. It tells two parallel stories: one in third person past through the eyes of a female detective in the state police, Oberleutnant Karin Müller, who’s trying to solve a gruesome murder but has to battle obstacles put in her way by the secret police, the Stasi. The other, in first person present, follows the life of a 15-year-old female inmate of a communist Jugendwerkhof – which loosely translates into ‘youth workhouse’ or reform school. The two stories eventually collide in a climax on the snowy slopes of northern Germany’s highest mountain, the Brocken, near the border with the west. I think fans of Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44 would enjoy it, and also those who read Anna Funder’s non-fiction account of the Stasi’s methods, Stasiland.

STASI CHILD is set in East Germany in 1975. What drew you to writing about this moment in history?

No-one had yet written a crime series set in East Germany – at least not in English as the original language. So I thought it filled a gap in the market, was something a bit different and – given the success of books like Child 44 and AD Miller’s Snowdrops – could prove popular. The idea originally came from reading Stasiland while on a self-booked (and at times chaotic) mini-tour of eastern Germany with my indiepop band about seven years ago. I was fascinated that you could still feel the ghost of the communist east even though the Berlin Wall had been torn down, at that time, twenty years earlier. Müller’s office is underneath Hackescher Markt S-bahn station – where we played our Berlin gig. So I wanted to choose a time when East Germany was perhaps at its most confident, and yet with enough years to fit a series in, if the first book sold well.

Given the modern historical setting, how did you go about researching the book?

A mixture of things, really. Watching films like The Lives of Others and Barbara, episodes of the original East German detective show, Polizeiruf 110, and the current German TV series set in the period, Weissensee – which is a great watch but inexplicably, and annoyingly, only has English subtitles on the second of its three series so far. I also read a lot of memoirs of inmates of Jugendwerkhöfe, that sort of thing, and true crime books by former GDR detectives. I don’t speak German – so it was a case of tearing out pages, feeding them into an OCR programme via a scanner, and then putting it all through Google Translate! What came out was barely intelligible, but you could pick out the facts even if the actual storytelling was mangled beyond repair. I also had great fun visiting all my locations, and interviewing former East German detectives (with the help of translators). So I loved the research, and I’m itching to get back out to Germany again. I also keep telling myself I must learn German!

image006

You recently completed the City University MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction), how do you think this helped you on your journey to publication?

I think it was the key to it, really. We had some great tutors who were all published crime writers: Claire MacGowan, Laura Wilson and Roger Morris were mine – although William Ryan, who writes in a similar genre to me, has now joined. Roger introduced me to Peter May’s Lewis trilogy, and the structure of Stasi Child – with its twin narrative – is quite similar to May’s The Lewis Man. Claire nurtured the original idea, Laura worked on the nuts and bolts as my main novel tutor, and then both of them read and fed back on the full draft. The result was that Stasi Child won the course prize sponsored by the literary agents, PFD, and by the shortlisting stage a young PFD agent, Adam Gauntlett, had already declared his hand in wanting to represent me.

So, what’s it like having your debut novel published? What’s your best moment so far?

Because my publishers Twenty7 (part of the Bonnier group) are e-book first, the biggest thrill was getting a physical copy of the proof. It’s got a slightly different cover, very minimalist, which I love. I’ve only got one copy, though, and the publishers have run out now so I guard it with my life. And then in the last few days, Stasi Child became the fourth bestselling Kindle book in the UK, and the number one bestseller in Historical Fiction – for ebooks and paperbacks. It’s fallen back since, but that was a champagne moment, figuratively sitting on top of luminaries such as Robert Harris, Hilary Mantel …well, everyone who’s anyone in historical fiction. Ha! It’ll probably never happen to me again. We made sure we kept the screenshots of the charts!

STASI CHILD is the first in the Karin Müller crime series, can you tell us anything about the next book?

Yes Karin returns, but this time in the model East German new town of Halle-Neustadt, where underneath the ideal communist city gloss, dark things are happening a few months after the closure of the Stasi Child case. The Stasi are heavily involved again, and we also learn more about Karin’s past – with several surprises in store for her. It follows the same twin narrative format, but the second narration this time is darker, more disturbed, and unreliable. In fact the whole thing is darker and more disturbed, which is slightly worrying as most people seem to think Stasi Child’s about as dark as you can get.

And, finally, what does the rest of 2015 have in store for you?

Initially, I’ll be concentrating on promoting the Stasi Child ebook, and I’ve my first appearance at a literary festival, as part of the past prizewinner’s event at Yeovil on Friday October 30th. Then it will be a combination of reshaping book two with my editor at Bonnier, and researching book three with a trip to Germany. Oh, and I might finally get around to starting to learn German … but no promises!

A huge thank you to David Young for coming along to the CTG blog to chat with us today. You can find out more about David by checking out his website at www.stasichild.com and follow him on Twitter @djy_writer

Stasi Child is a great read, perfect for fans of historical crime fiction. Here’s the blurb: “East Berlin, 1975: Questions are dangerous. Answers can kill. When murder squad head Oberleutnant Karin Müller is called to investigate a teenage girl’s body found riddled with bullets at the foot of the Berlin Wall, she imagines she’s seen it all before. But when she arrives she realises this is a death like no other: it seems the girl was trying to escape – but from the West. 

Müller is a member of the People’s Police, but in East Germany her power only stretches so far. The Stasi want her to discover the identity of the girl, but assure her the case is otherwise closed – and strongly discourage her asking questions.  The evidence doesn’t add up, and it soon becomes clear that the crime scene has been staged, the girl’s features mutilated. But this is not a regime that tolerates a curious mind, and Müller doesn’t realise that the trail she’s following will lead her dangerously close to home.

The previous summer, on Rügen Island off the Baltic Coast, two desperate teenage girls conspire to escape the physical and sexual abuse of the youth workhouse they call home.  Forced to assemble furniture packs for the West, the girls live out a monotonous, painful and hopeless life.  Stowing away in the very furniture they are forced to make, the girls arrived in Hamburg. But their celebrations are short-lived as they discover there is a price on freedom in the DDR…”

STASI CHILD is out now in eBook (and will be out in paperback in February 2016). To buy the eBook via Amazon click on the book cover below

 http://

 

And don’t forget to check out all the other fabulous stops on the Stasi Child Blog Tour:

CR34iTvWoAAVo2j

CTG Reviews: #HEARTBREAKER by Tania Carver

4 Comments

Unknown

As I’ve said before on this blog, the Tania Carver books featuring DI Phil Brennan and Psychologist Marina Esposito are one of my favourites, and HEARTBREAKER – the latest addition and seventh novel in the series – is a real cracker of a read.

Here’s the blurb: “After years of abuse, Gemma Adderley has finally found the courage to leave her violent husband. She has taken one debilitating beating too many, endured one esteem-destroying insult too much. Taking her seven-year-old daughter Carly, she leaves the house, determined to salvage what she can of her life. She phones Safe Harbour, a women’s refuge, and they tell her which street corner to wait on and what the car that will pick her up will look like. They tell her the word the driver will use so she know it’s safe to get in.

And that’s the last they hear from her.

Gemma Adderley’s daughter Carly is found wandering the city streets on her own the next day. Her mother’s mutilated corpse turns up by the canal several weeks later. Her heart has been removed. Detective Inspector Phil Brennan takes on the case, and his wife, psychologist Marina Esposito, is brought in to try and help unlock Carly’s memories of what happened that day. The race is on to solve the case before the Heartbreaker strikes again …”

HEARTBREAKER has a fabulously twisty turny plot, a disturbing set of crimes at its core, and a tough emotional struggle for the two lead characters that threatens to destroy both their careers and their life together.

What I found especially chilling in this book is the way the killer selects their victims – targeting vulnerable women who have made the decision to seek refuge. Somehow the killer is gaining access to confidential information in real time, and until they are caught every woman seeking sanctuary is a potential victim. Through the storyline, the book looks at domestic violence through the eyes of the perpetrators, the victims, and those working to help the victims, and it doesn’t hold back from showing a violent and brutal truth.

Along with the case being investigated, there’s another complex situation that Phil and Marina are dealing with in their personal lives – the aftermath of the horrific chain of events in the previous book – TRUTH OR DARE – which has had a devastating impact on their relationship. As they struggle seperately to come to terms with the events they experienced, and the ever-present danger that hangs over them, the rollercoaster of emotions they feel continues to drive them further apart. But with the Heartbreaker investigation needing them to work together to find the killer, it soon becomes apparent that this case could be the thing that destroys them both and all that they’ve worked for.

Gritty and compelling HEARTBREAKER is a tense and suspenseful page-turner of a read.

Highly recommended.

 

You can find out more about Tania Carver (aka crime writer Martyn Waites’ alter ego) over on www.martynwaites.com and follow Martyn on Twitter @MartynWaites

And be sure to pop back on Thursday to read my interview with Martyn about the book.

You can click on the book cover below to buy HEARTBREAKER from Amazon:

http://

 

[I bought my copy of HEARTBREAKER]

 

CTG Reviews: THE DOMINO KILLER by Neil White

Leave a comment

25643638

What the blurb says: “When a man is found beaten to death in a local Manchester park, Detective Constable Sam Parker is one of the investigating officers. Sam swiftly identifies the victim, but what at first looks like an open-and-shut case quickly starts to unravel when he realises that the victim’s fingerprints were found on a knife at another crime scene, a month earlier.

Meanwhile, Sam’s brother, Joe – a criminal defence lawyer in the city – comes face to face with a man whose very presence sends shockwaves through his life. Joe must confront the demons of his past as he struggles to come to terms with the darkness that this man represents.

Before long, Joe and Sam are in way over their heads, both sucked into a terrifying game of cat-and-mouse that threatens to change their lives for ever …”

THE DOMINO KILLER is the third instalment of Neil White’s Parker brothers series and it fully delivers all the pulse-pounding tension, twists, and page-turning action that fans of crime thrillers crave.

The book opens with criminal defence lawyer Joe Parker being called in for a client meeting with a man charged with a bizarre theft, and detective Sam Parker involved in investigating a series of seemingly unconnected murders. But neither situation is quite as it first seems, and soon the cases collide in an explosive way that neither brother could have anticipated.

This story has the perfect balance between procedural detail and high intensity action. There’s a real immediacy to the writing and a chilling sense of jeopardy right from the outset that carries all the way through the book to the show-stopping finale. As the story develops, and the brothers’ cases become increasingly intertwined, the tension rises ever higher – making this one of those books that has you reading well into the early hours, desperate for sleep but unable to resist reading just one more chapter.

But this book isn’t just about the action. There’s a real emotion kick too, delivered as the brothers get closer to identifying the man who was responsible for their sister’s murder back when they were teenagers. As the stakes ramp up, they are forced to decide just how far they’re willing to go in order to get justice – putting their careers, their friendships, their families, and their lives on the line.

THE DOMINO KILLER is a fantastic read. It stands alone, but if you’ve not read the first two books I’d urge you to go back and start at the beginning of the series – it will be well worth it.

Utterly authentic and captivatingly compelling, this story grabs you by the throat and keeps you pinned right from the first page to the last.

An absolute must-read for crime thriller fans, and one of my favourite books of 2015.

 

To find out more about THE DOMINO KILLER you can read my interview with Neil White here, check out his website at www.neilwhite.net and follow him on Twitter @neilwhite1965

You can get THE DOMINO KILLER from Amazon by clicking on the book cover below:

http://

 

[With thanks to those lovely folks at Sphere for my copy of THE DOMINO KILLER]

CTG Reviews: TENACITY by J.S. Law

1 Comment

Unknown

 

What the blurb says: “A brutal murder. A lone female investigator. Two hundred metres below the ocean’s surface, the pressure is rising … Suicide must be investigated, especially when a Royal Navy sailor kills himself on a nuclear submarine only days after his wife’s brutal murder.

Now Lieutenant Danielle “Dan” Lewis, the Navy’s finest Special Branch investigator, must interrogate the tight-knit, male crew of HMS Tenacity to determine if there’s a link. Isolated, and standing alone in the face of extreme hostility, Dan soon realises that she may have to choose between the truth and her own survival. Justice must be served, but with a possible killer on board the pressure is rising and her time is running out …”

This debut novel from J.S. Law is a tense read from start to finish. Danielle “Dan” Lewis – a top investigator with more than a fair share of secrets hidden in her past – is brought in to investigate the alleged suicide of a member of HMS Tenacity’s Ship’s Company. Right from the get-go it’s clear that the odds are stacked against her – Tenacity’s men are a close-knit team and they don’t want anyone – especially a woman – poking around in their business.

Despite the hostility towards her, Dan presses on with the investigation. Master-At-Arms John Granger lends his support (although there are unresolved tensions between the pair that make for a tricky working relationship) and it seems that the investigation will manage to move forward. Then Tenacity gets the order to dive, and Dan has to continue the investigation on-board beneath the ocean’s surface. As she studies the nuances of the case and interviews the men, Dan begins to uncover the lies and secrets hidden within Tenacity’s history, and the danger that might still lurk within.

Like the novel’s title suggests, Dan is a tenacious lead character and someone that, as a reader, I found it easy to root for. She’s a survivor of injustice, using her own experiences as fire to fuel her unrelenting determination to achieve her goal – utterly focused on searching out the truth, even when it puts her own life in danger.

As an ex-submariner, author J.S. Law’s detailed knowledge of the Navy and submarines shines through to make for a highly authentic and atmospheric setting. The uniqueness of the tightly sealed environment of HMS Tenacity is made increasingly claustrophobic through the ever-increasing build-up of jeopardy.

Gritty, super-charged with tension and claustrophobically atmospheric, TENACITY is a real page-turner of a read – perfect for fans of military thrillers and police procedurals.

Highly recommended.

 

[Many thanks to the lovely folks at Headline for my copy of TENACITY]