Six Wounds – Morgan Cry

To make the perfect Spanish whodunnit cocktail, take one dead gangster, mix in six shifty expats, add one ruthless baddie and garnish with a suspicious police officer . . .

Daniella Coulstoun has recently moved to the Costa Blanca. When the dead body of a prominent London gangster is discovered in the cellar of her bar she quickly becomes the number one suspect.

With the police closing in, the local expats turning on her and a psychotic rival to the dead gangster in the background, Daniella knows she needs to nail the real killer, and fast.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Six Wounds tour and to Gordon Brown for an early review copy.

 

Six Wounds is the follow-up to last year’s Thirty-One Bones which saw Daniella Coulstoun ripped from her life in Glasgow (where she worked in a call centre for an insurance firm) to the Costa Blanca. Daniella had recently lost her mother and, as a consequence, inherited a murky pub frequented by an odd collection of ex-pats who were a thoroughly disreputable crowd. You do not need to have read Thirty-One Bones to enjoy Six Wounds (and I am sure you will enjoy Six Wounds) but knowing the background of the main characters is always nice and Thirty-One Bones is a thumping good read too. Either way, there are good books here to be enjoyed so you can decide where you want to jump in.

In Six Wounds Daniella has a whole new series of problems to contend with. She already knew her mother was involved in numerous dubious schemes and she was someone that had her fingers in many pies. But now Daniella is running Se Busca and it seems some of her mum’s former contacts expect Daniella to continue facilitating the same activities and enterprises – whether she wants to or not.

But before the reader catches up with Daniella’s latest dilemmas and predicaments there is a more dramatic incident to propel the reader back into her world. The book literally begins with an explosion of energy, chaos and destruction as Se Busca comes under attack for reasons as yet unknown. When the commotion has settled there is one unwelcome object left behind and it will bring the police to Daniella’s door.

Unfortunately for Daniella the police are going to be playing a large part in her life while this story plays out. She is not in control of events which are going on around her and her home and her bar are both being used by persons unknown who will try to gain leverage against her.

In Thirty-One Bones I felt Daniella was sharp and keeping well on top of her new surroundings. She was a savvy operator and I loved how she was able to handle what was being thrown at her. But now she seems less assured, the full implications of her sudden relocation to Spain is hitting in. Her mother has left her more problems than she can comfortably cope with. The pub is failing and needs major investment. Her co-owners are a dubious and duplicitous bunch and Daniella knows she can’t trust them but more importantly will they side with her when the chips are down? It all does seem to be getting too much for one person to contend with.

What did strike me as I read Six Wounds was how quickly Morgan Cry managed to grab my attention and nothing else I was reading at the time came close to matching that level of focus. I read Six Wounds over a weekend, everything else was ignored as I was totally engrossed in the events on the Costa Blanca. The story zips along at a slick pace and mixes tension and humour with some devious plotting. I was hooked.

 

Six Wounds is published by Polygon and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/six-wounds/morgan-cry/9781846975707