We Begin At The End. Chris Whitaker

This is one of those rare books that will stay with me for a long time.

The characters are incredibly well written with one in particular who managed to strike chord in me that no literary character ever has.

The story is set in a sleepy American town where, thirty years ago, a young girl was killed.

A youth, Vincent King, is tried as an adult, and given thirty years in prison, a term which is close to coming to an end.

The victim was the little sister of a girl he was in a relationship with. Her name is Star Radley and she is now a single mother with two children of her own.

It’s one of these children Duchess, a 13 years old girl who lives her life by the rules of the old Wild West outlaws that got to me. Quoting the outlaws way of life and history’s is the way she manages to put on a brave face, and boy does she need to.

Her mother is one of life’s victims, she drinks too much and has a bad taste in men, which often sees her returning home battered and bruised.

Duchess has a younger brother, and he is her world. She looks after him like his mother should.

Vincent Kings best friend growing up was “Walk” Walker, who is now Chief of the local police. He has always thought Vincent was hard done by, and that 30 years for murder was a harsh sentence for what was a drink drive hit and run.

But is he seeing things through rose tinted glasses. Was Vincent the kind youth that Walk remembers. Others certainly have a different opinion of him.

The sleepy little town hides a few secrets, and all of them seem to revolve around Star and Vincent.

Vincent still owns his childhood home, inherited after his incarceration. It may be run down but it sits on prime land. Land that a local businessman, Darke, is trying to develop.

Darke and Star have history.

When Star returns home one night having suffered another battering Duchess puts two and two together and seeks revenge on Darke.

From there on her life turns into a nightmare.

She tries to look out for her little brother but her revenge on Darke is coming back to bite her.

Meanwhile King is arrested for another murder shortly after his release from his thirty years in prison.

All the characters are good but there is something about Duchess that resonates with me. She is a captivating character who really pulls on the heart strings.

Again Walk is convinced of his innocence but he is the only one.

The story winds up to a fantastic end.

It’s a story of misguided loyalties, and misunderstandings, secrets and lies, and it is brilliant.

The entire story is good enough to recommend this book as one of the best I’ve read this year.

But Duchess’s story, within the book, is one that will stay with me.

Pages: 386. Publisher: Zaffre. Available Now. Audiobook Length 10 hours 29 minutes. Narrator: George Newbern

Nash Falls & Hope Rising. David Baldacci

Two books one review

I’m going to start this review by saying how good the story in these two books is, before I go onto what I unfortunately is a bit of negativity.

The story.

At its foundation this story is about a good guy, with the perfect life, a wife, a teenage daughter, and a highly successful career, who is approached by the FBI to help them build a case against his employer.

Unsurprisingly this goes wrong and his world is torn apart.

The rest of the story is about his efforts to get justice.

Nash Falls

Walter Nash is a tall, wimpy highly intelligent man. At the start of the story he attends his dad’s funeral, a Vietnam Veteran who had little time for the son who sought to play Tennis instead of NFL style football.

His distain for his son is so deep he even has another vet’ bad mouth him at the funeral.

The case is built from the very beginning of the book that Nash is a physically weak, but highly intelligent man, who does anything to avoid physical excess or any form of danger.

The company he works for is run by Burton Temple and his son Rhett. Both men are typical modern day lotharios who treat people with contempt. Although they embrace Nash because he brings in more money than anybody else.

So when the FBI approach Nash to help them uncover the illicit side of the Bartons business he is slow to say yes but eventually does.

The Bartons are only mid-level operators. The big fish that the FBI are after is Victoria Steel, and her ultimate boss

Steel is half English half Chinese and is a ruthless drug runner using the Temples to launder money.

Nash’s world falls apart as his cover work is exposed, no spoilers from here on except he has to change his identity and becomes Dillon Hope

Hope Rises

Part two of the story with Nash established as Dillon Hope and working undercover to gain revenge by exposing Victoria Steer and the Rhett Barton.

His new looks, and persona couldn’t be further from his old identity.

The story crosses Asia and America.

Hope/Nash’s ethos and his beliefs are tested to the limit.

The mild man that is, or was Nash, wants the ultimate justice, whilst the new Dillon Hope is beginning to have empathy for some of the criminals.

When the time comes which ego, Nash or Hope, will rise to the surface.

This is a really compelling story but there’s one thing in this book that really had me struggling to set aside.

Nash’s transformation into Hope takes over a year, and there are some physical changes, but for me it’s a bit like Clark Kent taking off his glasses and nobody noticing that he is Superman.

For me its just too much of a stretch to think that nobody notices its him.

The other thing that troubled me is this should not have been two books.

There is no getting away from the fact that Nash Falls just stops. There is no conclusion. No Cliffhanger. It just stops. The last chapter in that book is just the end of another chapter, like any other in the book.

The first chapter in Hope Rises is the next chapter of the previous book.

If you were to read either as a standalone it wouldn’t work.

There is no finish to one and no start to the other.

The end of the story is really good but I couldn’t help thinking that there were two or three chapters in the second book that weren’t needed.

As much as I enjoyed the books, and I am a massive fan of the author, I really couldn’t shake the feeling that he had a good story in mind, and when he wrote it he realised it was too long for one book. So he looked for a continent place to end the first and realised the second wasn’t long enough so threw in a few more chapters.

I did enjoy the books but I felt almost conned at the end of the first one. The lack of an ending made it a bit weak.

Although I said the first book didn’t end on a cliff hanger, and it didn’t, I still wanted to know what happened next, purely to get a conclusion to the story.

All that being said would i recommend the books. Yes and No.

Yes if you are a Baldacci fan.

Yes if you start book one knowing you are going to have to go straight to book two.

But as stand alone’s, or if its your first by David Baldcacci NO.

Nash Falls Pages: 611. Hope Rises Pages: 433

Publisher: MacMillan

Both Books available now.

The British Agent. Simon Conway

A good old fashioned espionage story set during the Joe Biden Administration.

The story takes advantage of the chaos caused by the Trump supporters in the January 6th uprising, the war in Ukraine and the revolving door of British Government.

At the centre of the story are three, state-of-the-art, ground-air, guided missiles that the UK supplied to Ukraine.

Chuff is an ex-army private contractor working for E Squadron, a section of the special forces that work directly for Government departments such as MI6.

Chuffs initial job is to audit the munitions being sent to Ukraine, in order to see that its not been sold on to third parties.

When it becomes evident that 3 of the ground-air missiles have fallen into the wrong hands she is initially tasked with finding them.

When that ends in a diplomatic mess she is the scapegoat and is hung out to dry.

Meanwhile in the USA one Politician has eyes on the big seat.

Although the Presidents, past present and future are not named in the book, it is obvious who Conway is talking about.

Biden is seen to be a sleepy liability, but the “Good Old Boys” of the Republican Party are not too happy with the possibility of Trump returning to power.

The answer is to use the militia, formed during the raid on congress on 6th January 2021, to cause chaos and allow one man a run at the Presidency.

To do that they need to get a ground-air missile to Washington and take out the President whilst he’s flying in Marine 1

Chuff is brought back into the fold and tasked with infiltrating the American militia terrorist cell.

But it’s becoming obvious that none of the main players are who they appertain to be.

She can’t trust anybody, the problem is she thinks she can trust some of the main players. In fact the deeper she gets the more she seems to trust. But is that part of the bigger plan.

Who wants Chuff to succeed in stopping the plot to kill POTUS, and who wants him dead and is setting her up to be a scapegoat for the second time.

Throw into the mixture a Russian who also wanted the missiles, and who now holds a personal grudge against Chuff and you have a great story.

The story, and the writing are Clancy(esk).

The plot is not only believable, in the current international climate, but is frankly very realistic.

The characters are not, by any means, a stretch of the imagination. In fact I would go as far as to suggest they are some of the most realistic, and believable characters I’ve read in espionage books.

As a fan of the aforementioned Tom Clancy, this is the book I’ve been waiting for, for years.

Pages: 419. Publisher: Penguin. Publishing date: 20th August 2026. Audiobook length and Narrator yet to be announced but available from 20th August 2026

Twisted. Steven Cavanagh

I started writing this review before I was halfway through the book.

Why? Because I was sure that the twists that were already in the story were some of the best, and surprising, I’ve read in any book.

Had one of them come at the end it would have been the culmination of a great plot. So I really can’t wait to see where this story goes.

And they just kept coming. I honestly think if somebody had told me how this book progressed, I may not have read it. BUT, and it’s a big but, I would have been wrong. I would have missed out on the best book I’ve read this year.

This story isn’t filled with unnecessary characters, in fact there are only a handful of of people mentioned outside of the main four.

Paul Cooper is a mysterious person. His wife of two years, Maria, is kept on a short but comfortable financial leash. He works away from home a lot and leaves Maria at home in the small coastal town of Port Lonely.

Maria, in turn has got bored of her husband, she has a lover Daryl, a bar tender who owns his own fishing boat. He is her real love and she is planning to leave Paul.

Daryl, the typical, laid back, carefree, man with no commitments. He loves Maria as much as she loves him and is prepared to do anything to get her out of her marriage.

Dole, the small town sheriff. A single man with no family. He takes every crime seriously and has one unsolved suspicious death that haunts him. He will never close the case.

Those are the real characters, but there’s a fifth that hangs over every page of the book.

The mysterious author J.T LeBeau. One of the world’s top crime writers, every book a best seller, every book contains unpredictable twists.

LeBeau has never been seen, nobody alive knows their true identity. They maintain their privacy explicitly, nobody can ever find out who they are.

The book opens with one of the main characters at the memorial for LeBaux, he’s about to kill the person he thinks is the real Lebeau. Just as he’s about to pull a gun a hand is placed on his shoulder and a voice whispers in his ear. “I know who you are J.T LeBeau”

The next line of the book is set 4 month earlier. And from there the book traces the story up to the point where the statement is whispered.

In between is the most compelling story I have read for years.

The plot had me comfortable with who was who, and who was LeBeau, until it didn’t. And when the twists started to come it just raised the story to another level.

Even the last few chapters snuck up and kicked me in the butt.

It’s not often I enthuse about a book much in my day to day life, but I’ve been telling everybody about this one. A definite must read recommendation from me.

Pages: 388. Publisher: Headline. Available now. Audiobook length: 11 hours 43 mins. Narrator Laurence Bouvard

What The Dying See. M.J Lee

DI Ridpath series, book 12

What I like about this series is the fact that M.J Lee always manages to find a plot that includes something either topical, or something that could quite easily happen.

In this book the murder of a man, found malnourished and who had been dead for several weeks, gets linked to other cases after an almost casual observation at the scene.

Meanwhile Greater Manchesters Coroner is beginning to have suspicions around the involvement of the Department of Work and Pensions in the seemingly accidental deaths of several people.

She is always on guard, shes never going to let another Harold Shipman happen on her watch.

So when it becomes apparent that the DWP are cutting vulnerable people’s benefits, or putting undue restrictions, or impossible request, on them, and that several people’s deaths may have been the result of this, then she makes it her mission to stop these practices.

Could Ridpath’s murder investigations be somehow linked to the Coroners suspicions of the practices of the DWP.

The use of private carers is mentioned in the book. Having seen the vast differences between good carers, and bad ones for myself, it’s a surprise to me that there are not more deaths involving carers investigated by the Police.

Then there is the question of assisted suicide. Moralistically this is divisive, legally its a minefield. So when a man walks into a police station and says he’s killed his father, but later states that it was a part of an assisted suicide, its a clever plot twist that just adds more intrigue to the story.

The plot is not as complicated as I may have made it sound. It’s a cleverly written story. It brings together some very believable scenarios.

That coupled with the ongoing storyline of Ridpath’s private life makes this book a great read.

Publisher: Canelo Crime. Pages: 352. Available now

The Bone Stalker. Victor Methos

Book 3 of the Vegas Shadows series

A deprived  serial killer is trying to get into the head of Detective Lazarus, but why.

There is a hierarchy of people that have reasons.

The white supremacist Phineas (Deadeye) Walsh.

Judge Hope Dawson, who is running for the Senate

Police Assistant Chief Harold Dubbs, a career desk jokey who has no courage and can’t stand up for himself.

All of these people, and many others have reason to take down Lazarus, but they also have reason to bring down each other. It’s a type of vicious circle that is spiralling around the detective.

His friend Piper Danes is inevitably caught up in his manic investigation, and along with helping him investigate, she is also trying to nurse him.

Still suffering from serious injuries sustained in a previous investigation. Lazarus is also going cold turkey from the lack of alcohol.

He wouldn’t class himself as an alcoholic, but he is a typical hard drinking cop, and with trauma damage to his liver, and the medications he is on he has to stop drinking, and its taking an effect.

His judgment is questioned and when the murders start to connect back to him Dubbs bans him from the investigation.

The trilogy of suspects are all connected, and all of them have reason to get to Lazarus.

So when his estranged daughter decides she wants to know her Dad, it just another worry for him, another distraction.

Distractions are something he can’t afford. This killer is different. He doesn’t make mistakes, he leaves subtle clues only Lazarus seems to be able to pick up on. He kills in a ruthless manner.

For fans of the series you might have expected me to mention Piper Danes a bit more. But to be honest, with the exception of a side story about her family, and the fact that she is nursing Lazarus, she doesn’t have much impact on this story.

If you haven’t read the previous two books, The Silent Watcher and The Night Collector, I would highly recommend reading those first.

This book would not read well as a standalone and relates back to both the previous ones.

My reviews are in the links below.

The Silent Watcher

https://nigeladamsbookworm.com/2024/12/01/the-silent-watcher-victor-methos/

The Night Collector

https://nigeladamsbookworm.com/2025/09/25/the-night-collector-victor-methos/

Conn Iggulden Nero Trilogy

Nero, Tyrant and Inferno

Taking nothing away from how Conn Iggulden writes, which is brilliant, but if you introduced a few dragons and a bit of magic into these books they could easily be in the same genre as books such as Game of Thrones.

For me this is a grown up version of the same type of stories found in those books.

Loosely based on history, and containing people who we know from Roman history, set immediately after the execution of Jesus, this series is a compelling read.

At the core of the series is a mother and her son. Agrippina is the granddaughter of a previous Emperor of Rome, Augustus. When we first meet her she has a young son, Nero who is no more than a toddler but already showing signs of his bullish future behaviour.

She is married to a man who was once a great Chariot racer but who is now a drunk living on his past fame.

Agrippina may have a bloodline to the past Emperor but it means nothing in the Rome of the early 1st Century.

Emperors are killed by those closest to them as power becomes the target of the people who hold important posts.

And although she holds no official post, there is nobody who has a craving for power more than Agrippina, and she will use whatever means she has to make sure she sits at the highest of tables.

She cannot become Emperor, so to get where she wants to be she either has to marry an Emperor, or ensure her son, no matter how tenuous his blood line, becomes Emperor.

Nothing will stop her and she turns to murder and incest in her relentless rise.

But will she succeed…………….it is no spoiler to say yes she does. History tells us Nero became a Roman Emperor, but she made enemies along the way, including her son.

Nero has seen her relentless push for power, he knows how dangerous she can be.

The way he deals with her is a big part of the plot of the second and third books and it is really interesting to see how Iggulden has weaved the plot around historical fact.

There are side stories throughout. Agrippina accompanies her Uncle/Husband Claudius on his invasion of Britain.

The size of the raiding army, and the logistics of its travel to, and ultimately invasion, of Britain is brilliant.

The in house politics of the Roman Empire, the nepotism of the leaders leading to ineptitude of duty is fascinating.

The underground rise of Christianity, with the one of the disciples, Paul, giving sermons and converting many to the new religion and away from following Roman Gods.

In the last book this really causes division as people start to look at the Emperor in a different way.

Nero doesn’t help himself with his erratic behaviour and stranger rulings.

His days are numbered but how will he ultimately meet his ending.

This is not my usual genre of book but I do occasionally dip into what I call proper historical fiction. Books by the likes of Ken Follett, CJ Swanson, and CS Forester.

These books always lead to a pleasant trip into the land of research and this series was no different.

The books are accompanied by forwards by Conn Iggulden where he notes that many of the characters are known to have existed, as did many of the events. But the way he has weaved the web of stories is extraordinary.

I would have blogged a review after the first book, but I just had to go straight to the second, and in the end did a back-to-back-to-back read of the trilogy over about a week.

Highly recommended.

Connie. Charlotte Duckworth

A simple cast of characters, a relatively simple plot, but a brilliant and absorbing story.

The characters, and there’s only really two, Connie and Olivia. Connie the serial killer and Olivia the middle aged mother of two twins.

But there’s much more to both characters.

From the start there is no doubt that Connie is a killer, in fact shes in prison serving a life sentence for killing seven people. She shows no remorse, and throughout the investigation, and still whilst in prison, she has never given any reason as to why she killed those seven random people.

Olivia is an ex detective. She took maternity leave when she had her twin boys, and never went back. Now, 18 years later, they have gone to university and she is bored. There is an emptiness in her life she tries putting down to empty nesting, or rather her husband puts does.

He’s a successful business man who earns enough for her to stay at home. But she has a bee in her bonnet, and it’s Connie Cross, the infamous killer.

Why?

Not only is she intrigued by the fact that Connie has never given a reason for the killings, but she also had dealings with her when Connie was a very young girl.

Olivia was the Family Liaison Officer assigned to Connie when her baby sister died suddenly at home.

The police would be involved in any sudden death but when Connie let it slip to a neighbour that she thought her Dad dad killed her the Police arrest him.

What had always been a bad relationship between father and daughter, as well as his abusive behaviour towards Connie’s Mom, make him an ideal suspect. But he is innocent and the relationships get even worse.

Olivia meets with an ex colleague, who is now a Detective Inspector and was part of the team that arrested Connie when her crimes came to light, and tells him shes thinking of writing a book about Connie. He tries to convince her to return to policing but helps her get access, as a visitor, to Connie.

What follows is Then-and-Now chapters as Connie’s story is told.

How she became a killer, why she killed the people she killed.

All the time Olivia is realising that her home life is not what she wants anymore.

But is that her choice, or is Connie manipulating her.

Because at the end of the day Connie just like to mete out justice in her own way.

You always hear the phrase on TV talent and reality shows. If you are going to do “simple” it has to be perfect.

This is the epitome of that.

It’s a simple story but it is written so well it is stunning.

It unfolds slowly, without being boring.

There are no shocks or twists that make it unlikely.

It is simply one of the best books I’ve read for some time.

Pages: 464. Publisher: Quercus. Audiobook length: 10h 7m Narrator: Susie Riddell

Dissection of a Murder. Jo Murray

I want to start this review with two quotes, of quotes, from the book.

Are we just to accept you’re either the victim or the killer, and there’s nothing in between

And

A jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer

Two paragraphs from early in the book that sum up this story.

There are twist and turns, there are hidden clues, some of which were so obvious, but only with the benefit of hindsight, and there is one hell of an ending

Leila is a Barrister and she is about to defend her client, Jack Millman.

There are a few things that make this a tense situation.

It’s Leila’s first murder trial.

The Victim was a well loved Judge

Perhaps the worst, her Husband is the prosecution Barrister.

Oh, and there’s one other thing. Millman pleads innocent but he won’t give any information to help build his defence.

He was arrested at the scene and has gone given no comment as his answer to every question the police has asked him.

A tactic he continues when he has his first meeting with Leila.

She has defended him before, on an assault case. He was innocent but found guilty.

Why?

Because he gave the police information about the girl he was protecting during the alleged assault. She was going to be his key witness, but she was got at by some powerful people and never gave her evidence in court. Worse still he was labelled a grass for accusing a gang member of assaulting the girl.

This time he’s giving nobody a chance to interfere with what he hopes will be a fair trial.

That is the main thread of the story, but there is also the nice in house soap opera that is the Chambers Laila and her husband work out of.

It’s a hard working law chambers where politics and “relationships” drive the narrative.

I like legs thrillers. The American ones are usually top of the best sellers but the British Legal system is so full of traditions and history; nepotism and old school ties, sex and scandal, that it makes for fascinating reading.

This is one of the best, in this genre, that I’ve read for a long time.

Pages: 416. Publisher: Macmillian. Audiobook Length 11 hours 40 mins. Narrator Joanne Froggart

Bookworm. K.L Griffiths

It’s been a long time since I read a book like this.

A crime fiction, psychological thriller is the best way to describe it but it’s so much more than that. Stephen King is mentioned numerous times in this book, and the story sits right in with some of his work.

It’s dark, and it plays with your head.

Lyn Darrow is a literature teacher. She is also is a young widow, and since the death of her husband has become a reclusive bookworm, losing herself in books rather than facing reality. Although she still works in a local school she spends all of her down time in her isolate country home.

Her life derails even further when she reads a passage in a book which is an accurate account of her experience on the day her husband was killed in a hit and run close to their home.

This is quickly followed by her discovering a body with a hornets nest on its head in her rear yard. But when the police attend there is no body. Just footprints leading to and from her house from the woods.

The hornets nest is another sign. Something she’d rather not remember from her past.

Although most people seem to think she’s over exaggerating, telling her it’s just teenage pranksters, there are a few who believe and support her.

The school principle, the library assistant who keeps her supplied with a TBR of books her husband read, the one sympathetic police officer, and an unlikely student.

The trouble is surely one of these people must be responsible for messing with her head. They are the only ones close enough to her, and who have access to her house, to make the things that are happening to her happen.

What follows is a trail of chaos that is aimed at mentally destroying Lyn, but it goes much further and people start to go missing, or worse, get murdered.

At times reading this book was like watching one of those TV thrillers, or horror movies, when you just want to shout “turn a light on” or “don’t go in there”

At 327 pages it’s not a short book but it is a quick read. Once I started it I couldn’t stop and this was the first book, in a long time, that I’ve read in a day.

The end comes quickly, and when it did I let out one of those long sighs. Did I get the right suspect?

Eventually.

Was it obvious?

No!

Will I read any other books by K.L Griffiths?

YES

Pages: 327. Publisher: Cottonwood Fire LLC Audiobook: 8 hours 12 minutes. Narrator: Joshua Katchnycz