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Tenacity: Naval Toasts – Tuesday to “Our Men”

Tenacity by J. S. Law was one of my top reads of 2015. It made the Top Three and in my review I said “I don’t remember being this captivated by a debut novel since Lee Child published Killing Floor” it is that good!

To celebrate the paperback release of Tenacity (Thursday 21st April) we are having a Naval Toasts Blog Tour. Tuesday is the toast to “Our Men” so charge your glass while I pass this to Mr Law:

If you’ve followed my blog tour, you’ll already know that at mess dinners in the Royal Navy, immediately after the Loyal Toast of ‘The Queen’, the youngest officer present will normally offer the traditional drinking toast of that day.

The toast for Tuesday is traditionally “Our Men”. This toast was changed in 2013 by the then Second Sea Lord, Vice Admiral David Steel, to become “Our Sailors”, to rightly reflect the contribution of females at sea, though the traditional toast is still widely used.

It takes a certain personality type to function on a submarine and there are those who can do it, and those who enjoy it. The one thing I still enjoy is the camaraderie with like-minded people. The vast majority of my friends are either Navy/submariners, or are connected to the Navy and the forces in some way, and that shows in their acceptance of very dark ‘gallows’ humour that the armed forces is well known for.

But it also takes a certain type of person to leave their family for extended periods, bearing in mind that on submarines, there may be no, or very little contact at all for weeks and months on end. It tests relationships at home and on board, and submariners very quickly have to learn how to live in very close proximity to each other, but still to give each other space when needed – knowing when it’s time to have a joke and when it’s time to back away and leave someone alone.

When Dan boards HMS Tenacity, she states to John that she thinks getting away from people will be her biggest problem, given the physical confines of the submarine, but she quickly realises that these men on Tenacity are tightly bonded by their experiences and that even when she is surrounded by a hundred men inside the ship’s hull, she can still be made to feel very, very alone…

Two hundred metres below the surface,
she will have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

A sailor hangs himself on board a naval submarine. Although ruled a suicide Lieutenant Danielle Lewis, the Navy’s finest Special Branch investigator, knows the sailor’s wife was found brutally murdered only days before.

Now Dan must enter the cramped confines of HMS Tenacity to interrogate the tight-knit, male crew and determine if there’s a link.

Standing alone in the face of extreme hostility and with a possible killer on board, Dan soon realises that she may have to choose between the truth and her own survival.

The pressure is rising and Dan’s time is running out…

You can order Tenacity here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tenacity-J-S-Law/dp/1472227913?ie=UTF8&keywords=tenacity&qid=1461015549&ref_=sr_1_2_twi_pap_5&sr=8-2

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April 18

Sleeping Giants – Sylvain Neuvel

Deadwood, USA. A girl sneaks out just before dark to ride her new bike. Suddenly, the ground disappears beneath her. Waking up at the bottom of a deep pit, she sees an emergency rescue team above her. The people looking down see something far stranger…

“We always look forward. We never look back.”

That girl grows up to be Dr. Rose Franklin, a brilliant scientist and the leading world expert on what she discovered. An enormous, ornate hand made of an exceptionally rare metal, which predates all human civilisation on the continent.

“But this thing … it’s different. It challenges us. It rewrites history.”

An object whose origins and purpose are perhaps the greatest mystery humanity has ever faced. Solving the secret of where it came from – and how many more parts may be out there – could change life as we know it.

“It dares us to question what we know about ourselves.”

But what if we were meant to find it? And what happens when this vast, global puzzle is complete…?

“About everything.”

My thanks to Michael Joseph for my review copy which I received through Netgalley.

This book is just WOW. Sleeping Giants was an absolute gem, it made me laugh, it kept me hooked, I had no idea where it was heading and some scenes actually made me stop reading and double back thinking “Wait! What just happened?”

Now that sounds like Sylvain Neuvel may not have explained events very clearly, not so! The story unfolds as a series of interviews conducted between a shadowy political player and the various protagonists in the story. The interviews are a fantastically scripted and (usually) they are recapping events which have occurred in the past. The interview subjects are being quizzed on the ramifications of these past events and how they feel about what has taken place. This is how the whole story unfolds.

The end result of this interview-style story telling is that you can find that a MAJOR incident has occurred between interviews and the Shadowy figure is casually asking how a traumatic incident may have made someone feel (in the same way that they may be asked if they were unhappy that they forgot their umbrella on a rainy day).

If it sounds slightly unusual then I am not doing Sleeping Giants justice. It is a delight to read. The interview-style narrative is so cleverly used by the author that you cannot help but be entertained. The Shadowy figure is wonderfully deadpan and literal so the interviews always feel fresh and edgy.

The central characters are scientists, pilots, mathematicians – they operate on high intelligence levels yet are mere pawns in the game of the Shadowy character. He has out-thought them at each stage of the story, manipulated the team he assembled and has second guessed their actions months ahead of time.

But what of the titular Sleeping Giants? A young girl in Deadwood USA accidentally falls into a newly formed hole in the ground. Her landing is not on hard ground but she finds herself in the palm of a giant hand. The hand is made of a compound never before found on Earth and is confounding scientists. When the girl grows older she finds herself in charge of the team responsible for investigating the hand. However, now there is a will (or a Shadowy force, perhaps?) to find out if there are other parts to be found – what if the hand were a small part of a larger object?

Sleeping Giants tracks the progress of the quest to locate more ‘parts’ which will attach to the hand and then to establish the scope of power that they may harness. Sylvain Neuvel will take the story in directions you will not anticipate but you will enjoy every step of the journey.

Sleeping Giants gets one of the easiest 5/5 review scores I have awarded for some time. If this book does not feature in my Top Ten of 2016 it can only mean that the next 8 months have some stupendous books lurking in wait. I was gutted it ended, can we have the Shadowy figure back again please?

Sleeping Giants is published by Michael Joseph and releases on 21st April 2016. You can order your copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Giants-Sylvain-Neuvel/dp/0718181689/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1461016047&sr=8-1&keywords=sleeping+giants

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April 11

The Silent Twin – Caroline Mitchell

I’m alone in the dark, please can you find me …

Nine-year-old twins Abigail and Olivia vow never to be parted. But when Abigail goes missing from Blackwater Farm, DC Jennifer Knight must find her before it’s too late.

Twin sister Olivia has been mute since Abigail’s disappearance. But when she whispers in Jennifer’s ear, Jennifer realises it is Abigail’s voice pleading to be found.

A damp and decaying house set in acres of desolate scrubland, the farm is a place of secrets, old and new – and Jennifer must unravel them all in order to find the lost girl. But could Olivia’s bond with her twin hold the key to finding Abigail? And can Jennifer break through her silence in time to save her sister’s life?

My thanks to Bookouture for my review copy which I received through Netgalley

DC Jennifer Knight returns in her third outing in Caroline Mitchell’s The Silent Twin. I really enjoyed the first two books so had been looking forward to seeing what would come next for Jennifer – something rather different as it turns out.

A young girl, Abigail, has disappeared from her family home (a remote farm cottage), her glasses have been found seemingly dropped or discarded and her twin sister, Olivia, has not spoken a word since her sister vanished. The police were quick to respond but they have encountered a family dealing with their crisis in very different ways.

The father is a police officer and has mobilised family and neighbours to search the farm and surrounding areas. The mother is behaving extremely oddly as she is calm, collected and playing hostess to the police and searchers – she is not showing any apparent concern about her missing daughter. Olivia is moving around the house like a lost soul – she is not speaking and is seemingly keeping out of her parents way. But there is an added worry for the police that are assisting the family, strange events and disturbances in the family home (objects falling from stable positions and other unexplained phenomenon).

Jennifer is called into action in the unfamiliar role of Family Liaison Officer, this gives her constant access to the family and gets her into the house. Could her special talents and awareness of ghosts and spirits give her any insights into what happened when Abigail disappeared?

I loved this very different approach from Caroline Mitchell. The uncertainty over what had happened to Abigail keeps the reader engrossed in the story. Jennifer’s role felt very different in The Silent Twin too, admittedly she was performing a very different role for this investigation but it was fascinating following her attempts to engage with different family members who all required different approaches. Also the ‘haunted house’ element of the investigation gave the whole book a delightfully creepy edge which allows it to stand apart from the more standard police procedural stories.

The Silent Twin has a narrative from multiple viewpoints which worked really well as the story developed. The police investigation into a missing child had a very realistic feel and the constant frustration over lack of progress was brilliantly conveyed. The supernatural edge to the book was of particular appeal to me and I love the balance that Caroline Mitchell is working into the Jennifer Knight stories, the crime story the dominant element yet enough of the supernatural to make it distinctive.

I highly recommend The Silent Twin, it is a gripping story with more than its fair share of unexpected twists. Caroline Mitchell is putting the ‘super’ into supernatural, 5/5 from me.

The Silent Twin is published by Bookouture and will release on 14 April 2016. You can order a copy here.

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March 31

Bloq – Alan Jones

A gritty crime thriller.

Glasgow man Bill Ingram waits in the city’s Central Station to meet his daughter, returning home from London for Christmas. When the last train pulls in, and she doesn’t get off it, he makes a desperate overnight dash to find out why.

His search for her takes over his life, costing him his job and, as he withdraws from home, family and friends, he finds himself alone, despairing of ever seeing her again.

I received my review copy from the author in return for an honest review.

Bloq is going to be a tricky review to write. I like to provide the official book description (as above) and in my review I generally include a personal overview of the story and explain why I liked the book I am discussing. However, I cannot tell you WHY I enjoyed Bloq as it would just mean dropping massive spoilers. I CAN tell you that I loved it and didn’t want to put it down.

For no reason I can really explain (other than that I love an ongoing crime series) I had expected Alan Jones to set his new book in Glasgow and bring back Eddie Henderson, the lead character from his fantastic thriller Blue Wicked. I met Alan at the end of 2015 and although he wouldn’t tell me anything about Bloq he was quite happy to assure me Eddie was not returning!

So I picked up Bloq with no idea of what to expect and I tried to avoid other reviews before I read the story so that I could approach the book with a totally open mind. What I found was a gripping tale of a father’s obsession over his missing daughter, a deeply disturbing ‘bad guy’ to loathe and the dark shocking twists which turn a good thriller into a great thriller.

Bloq is the name of a London nightclub. Lead character, Bill Ingram, has travelled from Glasgow to London to try and find his daughter – the only real clue he has to her whereabouts is that she was a regular visitor to the Bloq nightclub. Bill visits the club but there is no sign of his daughter, the club manager gives Bill the owner’s address but that trail leads nowhere either and Bill is stumped where to turn next. What Bill does not realise is that his enquiries have caught someone’s attention and that he is now being followed.

As I alluded to previously, everything that is good about Bloq needs to be discovered by the reader as they follow Bill around London. You cannot know too much about this book in advance – avoiding spoilers is the key to maximum enjoyment. It is not the easiest of reads at times as Alan Jones seems to enjoy being really nasty to his characters. There are tough times ahead for Bill and as he leans more about his daughter’s potential fate you begin to wonder if you actually want Bill to find her!

Bloq scores a ‘must read’ 5/5 review from me.

Bloq is published on 1st April through Ailsa Publishing – you can order your copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloq-Alan-Jones-ebook/dp/B01CLH5AUE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459374016&sr=8-1&keywords=bloq

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March 23

The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows – Marnie Riches

Europe is in the grip of an extreme Arctic blast and at the mercy of a killer, who leaves no trace. His weapons of choice are razor-sharp icicles. This is Jack Frost.

Now a fully qualified criminologist, Georgina McKenzie is called upon by the Dutch police to profile this cunning and brutal murderer. Are they looking for a hit man or a frenzied serial-killer? Could there be a link to a cold missing persons’ case that George had worked with Chief Inspector Paul van den Bergen – two abducted toddlers he could never quite give up on?

The hunt for Jack Frost sparks a dangerous, heart-rending journey through the toughest neighbourhoods in Europe, where refugees and Roma gypsies scratch a living on the edge of society. Walking into the dark, violent world of a trans-national trafficking ring, can George outrun death to shed light on two terrible mysteries?

My thanks to the team at Avon for my review copy which I received through Netgalley.

George McKenzie is back in The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows, the third book in The Girl Who series by Marnie Riches and I have been waiting patiently (honest) for the chance to read this one.

Housekeeping first…it is entirely possible to read and enjoy The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows as a stand alone book. There are links to the previous titles (The Girl Who Wouldn’t Die and The Girl Who Broke The Rules) and there may be some small spoilers for new readers who go back to read the earlier titles after reading Shadows. However, new readers will not be disadvantaged as the author ensures recurring characters or past events are reintroduced during the narrative.

Right let’s get down to it…The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows is an intensely dark read. Brutal murders, child abduction and powerful criminal gangs all make for a wonderfully gritty reading experience. George and her partner, Amsterdam cop Paul van den Bergen, seem to be facing their biggest challenge yet.

Their attempts to track down a serial killer who leaves no forensic evidence at the crime scenes are failing at every turn. Van den Bergen’s bosses are demanding results yet there are no tangible leads for the police to follow. Van den Bergen is also haunted by his inability to make any progress with investigations into a double kidnapping of two young children – the children’s mother (a PR expert) has ensured the abduction has been all over the media – and the pressure is on van den Bergen to trace the missing toddlers. Could George’s studies into child abuse and connections to travellers yield any clues?

In addition to the pressures of these cases is the combustible nature of van den Bergen’s relationship with George. The two are seemingly determined to push each other away on a regular basis, however, they will have to overcome the problems of the tempestuous nature of their relationship to form an effective investigative team.

The story is nicely split between England and Amsterdam again and I enjoyed that the supporting cast (George’s family and van den Bergen’s team) got very prominent roles to play. The narrative jumps timelines and we switch between George, van den Bergen, the killer and other key players as the story demands. Normally I don’t fare well when books switch time periods (as I am a skim reader) but I didn’t have any issues in keeping track of events within Shadows. I actually really enjoyed how some events were teased, the author had revealed the outcome/aftermath of a situation, but left the reader wondering what had transpired to reach that point.

Marnie Riches is tackling some deeply emotive issues in this book and there are some nasty and unexpected twists along the way. I loved how the various plot threads started to come together as I reached the final third of the story and I think I practically inhaled the finale which left me crying out for more.

Dark, brutal and brilliant. The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows is exactly the kind of story that I love to read. Marnie Riches has crafted a series which I cannot recommend enough. A review score of 5/5 was guaranteed when I put down the book and realised that I had been holding my breath as I read the last pages.

The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows is released on 31 March 2016. You can order a copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00YGDJUAI?keywords=the%20girl%20who%20walked%20in%20the%20shadows&qid=1458689425&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

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March 9

Tastes Like Fear – Sarah Hilary

You’ll never be out of Harm’s way

The young girl who causes the fatal car crash disappears from the scene.

A runaway who doesn’t want to be found, she only wants to go home.

To the one man who understands her.

Gives her shelter.

Just as he gives shelter to the other lost girls who live in his house.

He’s the head of her new family.

He’s Harm.

D.I. Marnie Rome has faced many dangerous criminals but she has never come up against a man like Harm. She thinks that she knows families, their secrets and their fault lines. But as she begins investigating the girl’s disappearance nothing can prepare her for what she’s about to face.

Because when Harm’s family is threatened, everything tastes like fear…

My thanks to Elizabeth Masters at Headline for my review copy.

The third Marnie Rome thriller and another triumph for Sarah Hilary. Tastes Like Fear is a gripping read and is helping cement Sarah Hilary’s place amongst the best of the current crop of UK crime writers.

Tastes Like Fear has a focus on teenage runaways, girls who have left home and found themselves living rough on the streets of London. The girls have found that they become almost invisible, doing whatever it takes to survive. Yet for a select few there comes an offer of a place of safety – a home where food and shelter will be provided. All you have to do is live by the house rules, his rules…Harm’s rules.

Marnie Rome and DS Noah Jake have been investigating the disappearance of May Beswick a teenage girl who left home (for no apparent reason) and has been missing for several weeks. We are first reunited with Marnie and Noah when they are called to the scene of a road traffic accident – a teenage girl in a state of disarray has walked into the traffic causing a crash. The girl has left the scene, heading towards one of London’s more notorious housing schemes, yet there appears to be some doubt between the survivors of the crash as to what the girl looked like or even if she was ever there!

I enjoyed the shifting focus in Tastes Like Fear, the story follows Marnie and Noah and their investigations into May’s disappearance and the attempts to track down the girl from the crash scene. Then the narrative switches into the ‘haven’ that Harm is providing and we see how the girls who are living under his protection are dealing with day to day life under Harm’s watchful eye. There is a real feeling of unease as you read these scenes – an unpredictability – as Harm does not seem to act how you expect him to (yet you are also not quite sure how he SHOULD be acting).

However, as you may expect trouble lies ahead for the girls as rules have been broken, some girls have not behaved the way Harm expected and there will be…repercussions.

With all the twists and turns, shocks and surprises that I have come to expect from one of Sarah Hilary’s books I found that I could not put Tastes Like Fear down. The story flows brilliantly, the characters are the perfect blend of likeable, unpredictable or deeply deplorable and we get more insights into Noah and Marnie’s personal lives giving loved characters even greater depth.

There is also the added anticipation of what I am beginning to think of as ‘The Sarah Hilary Jaw-drop Moment’…one scene where everything I thought I understood about the story is crushed and I am blind-sided by a twist that I can never see coming. LOVE IT, nobody else consistently messes with my brain in their books the way Sarah Hilary can – she has the golden touch.

An easy review score for Tastes Like Fear…5/5 and a reader desperate for more.

Tastes Like Fear is published by Headline and is released on 7 April 2016 – you can order a copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ebooks-Tastes-Like-Fear-D-I-Marnie-ebook/dp/B011786B4W/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1

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February 22

Jonathan Dark or the Evidence of Ghosts – A.K. Benedict

Maria King knows a secret London. Born blind, she knows the city by sound and touch and smell. But surgery has restored her sight – only for her to find she doesn’t want it.

Jonathan Dark sees the shadowy side of the city. A DI with the Metropolitan Police, he is haunted by his failure to save a woman from the hands of a stalker. Now it seems the killer has set his sights on Maria, and is leaving her messages in the most gruesome of ways.

Tracing the source of these messages leads Maria and Jonathan to a London they never knew. Finding the truth will mean seeing a side to the city where life and death is a game played by the powerful, where everyone is lost but nothing is missing, and where all the answers are hiding, if only they listen to the whispers on the streets.

Shot through with love and loss, ghosts and grief, A K Benedict weaves a compelling mystery that will leave you looking over your shoulder and asking what lurks in the dark.

My thanks to Orion for my review copy which I received through Netgalley.

Ghosts – it is right there in the title…Jonathan Dark and the Evidence of Ghosts does contain actual ghosts (lots of them). But it is not a ghost story, well not in the traditional ‘haunted house’ ghost story way that you may have initially imagined.

In Jonathan Dark we learn that ghosts are all around us, they are living amongst us and (on rare occasions)interacting with the environment around us. Most of us cannot see these ghosts but a select few people can look beyond the normal and see the spirits around us. There are a few key characters in Jonathan Dark who are actually ghosts – it works brilliantly, their capacity to interact with the main characters is virtually nil but they have a massive impact on the story.

Having accepted the fact there are ghosts in the book you can now get on with enjoying a brilliant crime story which contains the threat of a murderous stalker, a powerful crime syndicate with a chilling recruitment ritual and an evil entity which feasts on the neurosis and fear of its victims.

The most chilling aspect of Jonathan Dark was the danger that A.K. Benedict heaped upon Maria King. Maria was born blind but has recently undergone surgery that was able to give her the ability to see for the first time. Maria is reluctant to give up the darkness she has known and still elects to wear a blindfold rather than accept the reality of how the world around her looks.

Following the shocking discovery of an engagement ring left for her to find ***Spoilers prevent me from telling you WHY it was shocking*** Maria is further rocked by the revelation that her flat has been equipped with video cameras which have allowed someone to spy on her while she believed herself safe (and alone) at home.

The police are called and head of the investigative team is the titular Jonathan Dark – a wonderfully complex character who has more than his share of secrets too. Dark is facing a race against time to keep Maria safe from the stalker and his investigations will bring him into direct competition with the powerful crime syndicate who do not like the thought of the police getting too close to some of their members.

I want to tell you more, there are so many side plots I want to discuss, characters that I would love to see feature in future books and there is something that Dark does which makes me want to know WHY! But I can only hope he returns and that A.K. Benedict gives us more of these wonderful stories.

I wish that every book I read was as enjoyable as Jonathan Dark and the Evidence of Ghosts. A 5/5 review score is a given.

Jonathan Dark and the Evidence of Ghosts is published by Orion on 25 February 2016 and can be ordered here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jonathan-Dark-Evidence-Ghosts-Benedict-ebook/dp/B00M88VQWS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1456184627&sr=1-1

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February 15

Morning Star (Red Rising Trilogy 3) – Pierce Brown

Darrow is a Helldiver, one of a thousand men and women who live in the vast caves beneath the surface of Mars, generations of people who spend their lives toiling to mine the precious elements that will allow the planet to be terraformed. Just knowing that, one day, people will be able to walk the surface of the planet is enough to justify their sacrifice. The Earth is dying, and Darrow and his people are the only hope humanity has left.

Until the day Darrow learns that it is all a lie. That Mars has been habitable – and inhabited – for generations, by a class of people calling themselves the Golds. A class of people who look down at Darrow and his fellows as slave labour, to be exploited and worked to death without a second thought.

Until the day Darrow, with the help of a mysterious group of rebels, disguises himself as a Gold and infiltrates their society.

My thanks to the Hodderscape team for my (treasured) review copy.

It started with Red Rising. It continued with Golden Son and now FINALLY Morning Star has arrived and Pierce Brown’s epic trilogy is complete. Epic. Not a word to be used lightly but wholly justified in the case of the Red Rising trilogy – these three books are outstanding examples of storytelling.

Picking up the story after the traumatic Golden Son cliff-hanger Morning Star reunites us with Darrow (The Reaper) and his seemingly failed mission to bring down the elite Golds. Confused? Well it is book 3 of a trilogy – you really MUST read the books in order to appreciate the scale of the story which Pierce Brown has woven.

It was a long 12 month wait for Morning Star but it was absolutely worth it in the end. I cannot tell you WHY, nor can I reveal who is still standing at the end of the book or even if Darrow and his allies manage even a partial success in their mission. What I CAN tell you is that Morning Star is the finale that you hoped it would be.

Tears, cheers and trauma. Twists, shocks and tragedy…Pierce Brown nails them all and keeps you flicking the pages long into the night. It is the story you never want to end AND the story you simply must finish!

Morning Star is waiting for you – if you have not yet met Darrow you can order a copy of Red Rising HERE and start the journey. If you have finished Golden Son then you owe it to yourself to find out what happens next – get your copy of Morning Star right this bloodydamn minute – things will never be quite the same again.

Morning Star is published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available in Hardback and Digital Format.

You can order a copy here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Morning-Star-Red-Rising-Trilogy/dp/1444759051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1455576722&sr=8-1&keywords=morning+star

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January 20

Stasi Child – David Young

East Berlin, 1975 When Oberleutnant Karin Müller is called to investigate a teenage girl’s body at the foot of the 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 from asking questions. The evidence doesn’t add up, and it soon becomes clear the crime scene has been staged. 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 . . . Stasi Child is David Young’s brilliant and page-turning debut novel.

My thanks to Julia at Midas PR for my review copy

I am still catching up on the overdue reviews – books I read during the Christmas holidays but just didn’t get a chance to capture my thoughts at the time.

Tonight I turn my attention to Stasi Child a wonderful and very distinctive thriller from debut author David Young. Stasi Child is set in 1970’s East Berlin, the lead character Karin Müller is an Oberleutnant in the People’s Police. Müller is called in to investigate the death of a girl who was found at the foot of the Wall – not an uncommon occurrence, however, this girl appears to have been trying to escape from the West back into the East!

From the first page I was drawn into the story. Müller is a great character to drive the story, strong yet vulnerable, powerful through her Oberleutnant rank yet powerless when the Stasi becomes involved in ‘guiding’ her investigations. Müller clearly has been a rising star within the People’s Police, however, her every step is watched and it is apparent that there are powerful forces keen to ensure her murder investigation is not too successful. As I read I was reminded of so many Cold War thrillers where spying was rife and everyone had a secret agenda.

Müller’s investigation takes her on an official visit into West Germany and it was fascinating to see how the trip to the other side of the Wall was handled. On returning back to the East there is a shock in store for Müller when attempts to curtail her investigation come too close to home.

As we keep track of the murder investigation there is a side story being developed, young children taken into care of the state and put to work in conditions I found comparable to a Dickensian Workhouse. We follow a teenage girl who is desperate to escape this Hell of a life. She has no-one she can trust but is determined to find a new life for herself. Is this girl destined to end up dead at the foot of the Wall? I had to know, I had to keep reading and the more I read of her plight the more I feared for her life. Top marks to David Young for this, it is rare I get this concerned about a character – if it DOES happen it is usually after the character has appeared in half a dozen books and they are considered part of the recurring cast!

Stasi Child ticked so many boxes for me. There is a murder story, the prospect of political intervention constantly casts a shadow over the characters, the social dynamics of 70’s East Berlin are explored and there are very real and frightening examples of how the State could intervene should there be suspicion of improper behaviour. From chapter to chapter there are so many compelling elements brought into play by David Young that you just have to keep those pages turning. The fact the book is described on Amazon as being part of the Karen Müller Series is such a thrill as it is a pretty clear indication that there will be the chance to return to Berlin and I cannot wait!

Stasi Child is published by Twenty7 and is currently available in digital format. It will be available in paperback from 11 February and (at time of writing) can be pre-ordered.

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January 17

In Place Of Death – Craig Robertson

A young man enters the culverted remains of an ancient Glasgow stream, looking for thrills. Deep below the city, it is decaying and claustrophobic and gets more so with every step. As the ceiling lowers to no more than a couple of feet above the ground, the man finds his path blocked by another person. Someone with his throat cut.

As DS Rachel Narey leads the official investigation, photographer Tony Winter follows a lead of his own, through the shadowy world of urbexers, people who pursue a dangerous and illegal hobby, a world that Winter knows more about than he lets on. And it soon becomes clear that the murderer has killed before, and has no qualms about doing so again.

My thanks to Craig and Simon & Schuster for providing a review copy.

I have been having a slow return to updating my blog since the turn of the year. I HAVE been reading and the reviews of the books I have read will appear in due course. However I wanted to have a wee run of reviews of books that I loved to start the year – step forward In Place of Death: a wonderful crime thriller, based in Glasgow and a book which introduced me to the concept of urbexing.

Urbexing is the name given to the exploration of abandoned urban buildings or places. Places closed off to the public while waiting demolition, potential refurbishment or just falling to ruin. But to some these forgotten buildings represent a challenge – a place to explore while knowing your presence is forbidden. Individuals that enjoy urbexing do not seek to damage or loot the buildings they visit – just enter, have a look around and get back out again. Some take pictures, others share their experiences through specialist chat forums. But in In Place of Death one adventurer found a little more than he expected on his explorations- a very dead body.

Craig Robertson’s brilliant duo, DI Rachel Narey and photographer Tony Winter, are back in In Place of Death and are called in as part of the investigation. They find themselves pitted against a stone cold killer, butting heads with Glasgow’s criminal underworld and questioning the lost souls that have fallen through the cracks in the system and are riding out their days in hovels to keep them from the streets. It frequently made for tense or harrowing reading and Robertson handles these scenes brilliantly. He puts his characters through an emotional wringer and you cannot help but keep reading to see how they cope with the traumas that are being piled upon them.

Through brilliant narrative we are guided on a tour of some of Glasgow’s famous landmarks and the darker corners. If you are in any way familiar with the city there is an extra level of enjoyment to be had when familiar buildings and structures are introduced. It made me look at some parts of the city in a whole new light and now when I travel into work each day I am looking around Glasgow to see other potential sites where the Urbexers may have tried to explore. It should be noted that you do not have to know Glasgow to enjoy this side of In Place of Death, as the locations (and their historical significance) are deftly woven into the narrative.

Narey and Winter will each have to face their personal demons during the course of the story. The scenes set away from the actual investigation further developed the back-story of the characters and this will be a real treat for returning readers. Winter and Narey are characters I want to read about, I love where Craig Robertson is taking this duo and I hope it is not too long before we meet them again.

I read too many books each year which entertain without ever really capturing my imagination. Not so with In Place of Death which had me hooked from the outset and had just the right blend of intrigue, humour, darkness and sheer nail-biting tension. A 5 star thriller from an author I strongly urge you to read.

In Place of Death is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in Paperback and Digital format: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Place-Death-Craig-Robertson-ebook-x/dp/B00MK376TI/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off