Deep Dark Night – Steph Broadribb

Fearless Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson travels to Chicago to trap the head of a notorious crime family, in a high-stakes, nail-biting mission that sees her trapped in one of the city’s tallest buildings during a blackout…

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.

An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.

When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.

And that’s just the beginning…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy and also to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the chance to host today’s leg of the blog tour.

Bounty-Hunter Lori Anderson returns for a fourth outing in Deep Dark Night. She has her partner, JT, alongside her and the kick-ass duo are going to need to be at their very best as they are working off the radar to assist an FBI agent to bring down the head of one of Chicago’s crime families.

If you haven’t had the chance to read any of Broadribb’s previous books in the Lori Anderson series you need not fret as Deep Dark Night works extremely well as both stand alone thriller and a great introduction to the series. I am sure there will be many first time readers who will love Deep Dark Night as much as I did and will take the opportunity to catch up on the first three books. A good decision!

But what to expect from Deep Dark Night? Does Agatha Christie meets Die Hard sound intriguing?

Lori and JT find themselves involved in a high stakes poker game. The game is hosted by Cabressa, gangster and general bad guy, the other players are equally dislikable types who can afford the big purse needed to have a seat at this game. The event is being held in the penthouse suite in a Chicago skyscraper. Lori has a seat at the table so she can stake a valuable set of chess pieces which Cabressa badly wants. The chess pieces and Lori’s buy-in purse is provided by the FBI. They will be watching through high tech surveillance equipment and Lori feels safer knowing they have her back.

Unfortunately things do not go to plan. Citywide blackout sees the penthouse going into lockdown. The Panic Room features in the penthouse are activated. Air conditioning, lighting and temperature controls are impacted. Nobody can get in and, more importantly, nobody can get out. So when a recorded voice addresses all the occupants of the penthouse and accuses each of harbouring a dark secret. Tensions are high. The voice announces one of their number is a police informant, another is a murderer and most alarmingly one is HERRON. A rival gangster who has been undermining many of Cabressa’s business opportunities. The voice commands the poker players work out which of their number is the mysterious Herron. If they fail the room they are locked in will lose light then air and they will all suffocate within 90 minutes.

A whodunnit (whoissit?) In the style of Christie. But the shades of Die Hard creep in too as we have 10 desperate individuals fighting for their lives in a skyscraper. The body count will be high.

At this point I should switch the alliteration button on. Deep Dark Night is a pulsating page turner, a rip roaring race against time, a breathtaking blockbuster of a book. You get the gist?

I am very much a fan of this kind of action adventure tale. The mysterious Herron figure remains undetected for a long time but several likely candidates emerge, not least Lori who is a stranger to all the other players and very much a possible candidate. One thing is certain – Herron isn’t surviving the encounter so nobody can risk being accused of being Herron.

Great fun to read. Brilliantly paced and decidedly nasty in places – Deep Dark Night is another great read from Steph Broadribb. Give it a go and join #TeamLori

Deep Dark Night is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XBWTW6X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

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March 25

Black River – Will Dean

Black River is an electrifying return for relentless reporter Tuva Moodyson, from the author of Dark Pines and Red Snow.

FEAR

Tuva’s been living clean in southern Sweden for four months when she receives horrifying news. Her best friend Tammy Yamnim is missing.

SECRETS

Racing back to Gavrik at the height of Midsommar, Tuva fears for Tammy’s life. Who has taken her, and why? And who is sabotaging the small-town search efforts?

LIES

Surrounded by dark pine forest, the sinister residents of Snake River are suspicious of outsiders. Unfortunately, they also hold all the answers. On the shortest night of the year, Tuva must fight to save her friend. The only question is who will be there to save Tuva?

Huge thanks to publishers Point Blank for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Black River blog tour

Black River brings another very welcome return for journalist Tuva Moodyson. Tuva has appeared twice before but if you haven’t had a chance to read any of Will Dean’s previous books (both highly recommended) the good news is that Black River works great as a stand alone title.

Returning readers will be delighted to learn that Tuva has achieved career progression and moved South, away from Gavrik and it’s deep, dark forests to take up a new role. However, Tuva receives a call to advise all is not well in Gavrik as her best friend Tammy has disappeared and the police do not seem to be treating the matter as a crime. Tuva immediately gets into her car and drives North – she will find her friend.

The Gavrik police point out that Tammy is an adult and has not been gone for long, they make it clear adults drop off the grid for no reason all the time. Tuva is not convinced – Tammy’s mobile food hut hasn’t been properly closed down, her bag and purse remain and there is a small drop of blood found at the place she was last seen. Tammy wouldn’t just vanish and leave behind all her possessions. Tuva is soon back doing what she does best, asking questions, probing and leaving no stone unturned.

I found it very poignant when Tuva was interviewing people she didn’t previously know and they painted her a picture of her best friend’s life – a girl Tuva no-longer recognized. Tammy is described as lonely, she was “missing a friend who moved away” and was using dating apps and going out with guys that Tuva didn’t feel were good matches for her friend. Guilt only increases Tuva’s worry for her friend.

Circumstances will soon change and the police will take a much more active role in searching for Tammy. But Tuva has her own suspicions and her investigations will bring her back into contact with some of Will Dean’s wonderfully unusual and quirky characters.

The Tuva Moodyson books are already one of the new releases I look forward to each year. Will Dean is building a cracking series and Black River only enhances the collection thus far. Highly recommended.

Black River is published by Point Blank and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-River-Will-Dean-ebook/dp/B07XYD9HKN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1584720019&sr=1-1

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March 21

Mexico Street – Simone Buchholz

Hamburg state prosecutor Chastity Riley investigates a series of arson attacks on cars across the city, which leads her to a startling and life-threatening discovery involving criminal gangs and a very illicit love story…

Night after night, cars are set alight across the German city of Hamburg, with no obvious pattern, no explanation and no suspect.

Until, one night, on Mexico Street, a ghetto of high-rise blocks in the north of the city, a Fiat is torched. Only this car isn’t empty. The body of Nouri Saroukhan – prodigal son of the Bremen clan – is soon discovered, and the case becomes a homicide.

Public prosecutor Chastity Riley is handed the investigation, which takes her deep into a criminal underground that snakes beneath the whole of Germany. And as details of Nouri’s background, including an illicit relationship with the mysterious Aliza, emerge, it becomes clear that these are not random attacks, and there are more on the cards…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the chance to host this leg of the Mexico Street Blog Tour.

Reading a Chastity Riley thriller by Simone Buchholz is an intense experience. Not a word is wasted in the tight, punchy writing. Yet, as I highlighted in my review of the previous Chastity Reily book, there is a lyrical beauty in the writing.

Reilly is back and investigating a case which has seen a body found in a burnt-out car. The burning car is not a new crime, there have been cars set alight across Hamburg over many previous nights. For a burning car to be occupied this is new. Further problems arise when the identity of the deceased is established – the estranged son of one of the prominent gangster families.

Chastity is present when Nouri’s family are told of his death. Their reaction is strange and unnaturally withdrawn. The son was not considered part of the family, he had sought a life away from the influence of his family and they had closed the door on him. So was Noiri’s death a random incident or was he singled out because of who he was?

As Reilly and her colleagues try to unpick the background on their victim and his family the reader gets glimpses (very small glimpses) into Chastity’s life. I feel she is such an enigmatic character as she appears in a constant spiral of drinking, smoking and mourning changes in her life.

There is a retrospective element to the story too. Two adolescents growing up, drawn together and facing the world despite knowing their lot in life is not one either would want. I found this part of Mexico Street most compelling. The boy and girl were such vivid characters and their stories and the challenges they faced kept me hooked – I had to know how they could overcome their hardships. If they could!

I previously highlighted the lyrical power in Mexico Street (and the previous titles) so a huge shout of praise goes to Rachel Ward for the phenomenal translation of the text from the original German. During the recent Orenda Roadshow event in Glasgow Buchholz also went out of her way to praise the incredible work which was done on the translation, moving her words from the “clumsy” German into English. English translation was described by the author as being a “Holy Grail” in publishing, this series really is a rare treasure.

Mexico Street is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mexico-Street-Chastity-Simone-Buchholz-ebook/dp/B07XBVQ95Q/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1584719807&refinements=p_27%3ASimone+Buchholz&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=Simone+Buchholz

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March 7

The Holdout – Graham Moore

One juror changed the verdict. What if she was wrong?

‘Ten years ago we made a decision together…’

Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar fortune, vanishes on her way home from school. Her teacher, Bobby Nock, is the prime suspect. It’s an open and shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed.

Until Maya Seale, a young woman on the jury, persuades the rest of the jurors to vote not guilty: a controversial decision that will change all of their lives forever.

Ten years later, one of the jurors is found dead, and Maya is the prime suspect.

The real killer could be any of the other ten jurors. Is Maya being forced to pay the price for her decision all those years ago?

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley. My thanks also to Tracy Fenton of Compulsive Readers for the opportunity to host this leg of The Holdout blogtour.

A fascinating mashup of courtroom drama and murder investigation where the reader is never sure who they can trust.

Ten years before events in the main timeline a young black teacher is on trial for the murder of a rich white girl who had been one of his students. The trial was high profile and seemed (at first glance) to be a formality with a murderer just needing the formality of a trial to confirm everyone believed him to be guilty. But a lone juror, Maya Seale, believed him to be innocent and she set about convincing fellow jurors she was correct.

During the trial the names of the jurors were leaked to the media and all the jurors had to be sequestered. It took several weeks for a the jurors to reach the unanimous Not Guilty verdict and over that time they got to know each other better than anticipated. Rules were broken, alliances formed and secrets were kept.

When the jurors returned to the “real world” they were not prepared for the response of the public. They seemed to be the only 12 people in the country who felt Not Guilty was the correct verdict. There was backlash.

Back to present day and Maya is a respected defense lawyer. Her experience on the jury gave her an insight into the judicial process and the way jurors behave which other lawyers couldn’t emulate.

Maya is approached by one of her fellow jurors as a production team want to do a documentary on the trial “ten years on”. Maya is reluctant but her boss encourages her participation – Maya feels she has no choice and agrees to join the show.

The jurors are assembled in the same hotel they were sequestered to and on the first night before filming begins one of them is murdered. Maya is the prime suspect. Can she clear her name? And if Maya is not a killer then one of her fellow jurors must be.

The Holdout is a twisty drama which switches between courtroom and investigative drama. Events are both historical (the original trial) and current (the jurors murder and Maya’s possible arrest). Clues are dropped through the narrative and it is wise not to make any assumptions.

There seem too few courtroom dramas these days, The Holdout will fill that gap in your legal reading.

The Holdout is pubished by Orion. It is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YHCR6YC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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March 6

Bobby March Will Live Forever – Alan Parks

WHO IS TO BLAME WHEN NO ONE IS INNOCENT?

The papers want blood.
The force wants results.
The law must be served, whatever the cost.

July 1973. The Glasgow drugs trade is booming and Bobby March, the city’s own rock-star hero, has just overdosed in a central hotel.

Alice Kelly is thirteen years old, lonely. And missing.

Meanwhile the niece of McCoy’s boss has fallen in with a bad crowd and when she goes AWOL, McCoy is asked – off the books – to find her.

McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time?

My thanks to Canongate Books for my review copy

This is one of the backwards reviews – one of the ones where I do the summary first. That only happens when I have been blown away by a book. So there should be no doubt when I say: I loved Bobby March Will Live Forever.

The third book in the Harry McCoy series which began with Bloody January (five stars) and February’s Son (five stars). I enjoyed Bobby March more than the first two so have not left myself any room to reflect this in my scoring system…I may need to add a smiley face or a “vg” like I did when I was teaching.

Now I can turn to the book. It is Glasgow in the blistering heat of Summer 1973. A child (Alice Kelly) has vanished off the streets and her parents are frantic. The police are stretched to the limit and it is “all hands on deck” to find Alice. All hands except Harry McCoy.

Harry has been sidelined. He is working under a new boss, a temporary arrangement while the head of his station takes on a secondment up in Perth. Harry and his new “boss” do not see eye to eye and the consequence of their enmity is that Harry is getting all the rubbish to deal with. So while his colleagues (and the splendid “Watty”) are on a city-wide hunt for missing Alice, Harry is left to deal with a drug-overdose in a city centre hotel. The deceased is Bobby Marsh, through a series of flashback chapters scattered through the book we see Bobby rise from young talented guitarist to the best session musician of his day. He played with all the greats but dabbled with all the wrong substances and this would be his undoing. Bobby is gone, his fans will be bereft and Harry has to work out why an apparent overdose appears to be more complicated than it may seem.

Harry’s Perthshire-ensconsed boss, Murray, also has another task for him as his niece has run away from home an Murray’s brother wants her found and returned. But as Murray’s brother seeks political office he wants his runaway daughter kept out of the headlines. Murray puts this responsibility onto Harry and leaves him spinning plates.

The investigation process in 1973 is very different from the crime fiction titles we read today and Harry’s world seems a million miles away from what we have now. Yet Alan Parks makes it wonderfully vivid and you can almost smell the cigarette filled bars and sweaty tenement rooms that Harry has to frequent.

The returning cast add so much depth and enjoyment, Harry’s old friend Stevie Cooper is still one of Glasgows crime kingpin’s, the dependable Watty is working with ‘the enemy’ on the missing girl case, brothel madame Iris is back to provide unwilling assistance and even Harry’s ex girlfriend cameos to remind him of days long lost.

The story is utterly compelling and I was totally unprepared for how some elements were resolved. So damned clever!

We are three books in to this series and I cannot say enough good things about all the Harry McCoy titles. Alan Parks is the name all fans of crime fiction should be seeking out. These are books you should be reading.

Bobby March Will Live Forever. Five stars, v.g. 🙂

Bobby March Will Live Forever is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XC7ZLBF/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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March 3

Cage and Fatal Forgery – Listening to Financial Crime

A Double Whammy of Audiobook Reviews today. As I work in financial services I particularly enjoy financial crime stories so when I recently listened to two such tales back-to-back it seemed appropriate to review them together too.

Cage – Lilja Sigurdarottir

Drugs, smuggling, big money and political intrigue in Iceland rally with love, passion, murder and betrayal until the winner takes all…in the masterful, explosive conclusion to the award-winning Reykjavík Noir trilogy.

The prison doors slam shut behind Agla when her sentence ends, but her lover Sonja is not there to meet her.

As a group of foreign businessmen tries to draw Agla into an ingenious fraud that stretches from Iceland around the world, Agla and her former nemesis María find the stakes being raised at a terrifying speed.

Ruthless drug baron Ingimar will stop at nothing to protect his empire, but he has no idea about the powder keg he is sitting on in his own home.

At the same time, a deadly threat to Sonya and her family brings her from London back to Iceland, where she needs to settle scores with longstanding adversaries if she wants to stay alive.

With a shocking crescendo, the lives of these characters collide, as drugs, smuggling, big money and political intrigue rally with love, passion, murder and betrayal until the winner takes all…in the masterful, explosive conclusion to the award-winning Reykjavík Noir trilogy.

My thanks to Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books who kindly provided a copy of the audiobook for me to enjoy.

Cage completes a trilogy – Snare and Trap are the first two books. Reading Trap and Snare will provide character back-story and set a scene but Cage is very much a title which could be enjoyed as a stand-alone read.

Both Snare and Trap focus on Sonya, she is the mother of a young boy who will do anything to keep her son safe, however, she is also one of the most effective drug smugglers in Iceland and lives a dangerous life. Those books are both wonderfully tense, unexpectedly shocking and Sonya is a great lead character. Cage shifts focus from Sonya to her sometime partner Agla. I was not expecting Sonya to be moved out of the limelight to the extent she was, but Agla is such a fascinating character and I was fully on-board with the change.

As Cage opens Agla is in prison but her release date looms. It is a daunting prospect for her and returning readers see how different this once confident individual has been changed as a consequence of her incarceration. Agla had expected to leave prison and be met by Sonya, but their relationship changed suddenly when Sonya had fled – seemingly unable to commit to a life with Agla. The rejection hurt Agla badly and her recovery and new reality are explored through the story.

Prior to her release, Agla had been approached by a senior executive of a large firm who wanted to recruit Agla (off radar) for her talent at financial manipulation and her ability to devise solutions around tough regulations. The challenge? To investigate unusual market practices in the aluminium markets.

Agla recruits an old adversary – Maria – to assist. Maria had once poured her energies into exposing Agla as a criminal but now her life has also been turned upside down. She is making a living as a journalist exposing corruption and bad practices. She reluctantly helps Agla and soon finds herself alone and imprisoned at the mercy of unknown agents.

Can Agla and Maria uncover the elaborate financial market manipulations? Will Sonya finally get the respite she seeks? And how does a young teen with a crate of dynamite and a desire to change the world fit into the story?

An explosive and powerful book which I utterly adored. The audiobook is brilliantly narrated (best recording of the trilogy) and the hours flew by as I listened.

Highly recommended.

Cage is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07QW4C2SN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

Fatal Forgery – Susan Grossey

It is 1824, and trust in the virtual money of the day – new paper financial instruments – is so fragile that anyone forging them is sent to the scaffold. So why would one of London’s most respected bankers start forging his clients’ signatures? Sent to arrest Henry Fauntleroy, Constable Samuel Plank is determined to find out why the banker has risked his reputation, his banking house and his neck – and why he is so determined to plead guilty. As the case makes its way through the Regency justice system, exercising the finest legal minds of their generation and dividing London society into the banker’s supporters and detractors, Plank races against time to find the answers that can save Fauntleroy’s life.

I put out a shout on Twitter for audiobook recommendations and got a lot of excellent recommendations. Although I only had scope to pick up one or two of the suggestions at the time I was drawn to Susan Grossey’s Fatal Forgery (as the day-job is in financial services). The premise of a banker pleading guilty to fraud when the penalty of his actions led to the hangman’s noose was ticking all the right buttons.

The story begins in 1824 and we are in the company of Constable Samuel Plank. These are the days before a London police force was fully established but Plank and colleagues do maintain law and order and work with magistrates to keep the streets safe. Well that’s a relative measure but they maintained a degree of discipline. It is clear Plank is well respected, he can apply reason and sound decision making and he is not one to have his head turned by the offer of a coin or two.

Indeed it is coins which are at the heart of this story as Plank is caught up in the disturbing case of a banker (Fauntleroy) who has failed to properly act in the true interests of his customers and traded stock and dividends without their knowledge. The semantics and methods used by Fauntleroy are nicely explained by the author and although I have an awareness of most of the terminology used I am quite sure those outside financial circles would have no trouble understanding how the crimes had been committed. Forgery is a phrase which carries over many generations!

The story follows the investigation. The social unrest and outcry (bankers were most trusted in 1824). We also get a court case and there is a great social history aspect to the story too. Susan Grossey does a marvelous job in depicting Regency London and gives the reader a splendid insight into how life may have been.

Narration duties are handled by Guy Hanson and he was very listenable. I repeat it often but the narrator can make or break the audiobook experience and Mr Hanson very much made Fatal Forgery a most entertaining addition to my listening library. There are further titles in the series and I fully intend to pick them up over the coming weeks.

Fatal Forgery is available in paperback, digital and audiobook formats and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fatal-Forgery/dp/B01LBBXQ2U/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fatal+forgery&qid=1582408083&s=books&sr=1-1

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