The last book in this Birmingham Crime series is an absolute stunner.
This whole series has been heading towards the final half a dozen chapters in this one book, and the suspense that builds up throughout this story makes that finale even better.
I only found this series about 6 weeks ago and read the first five just in time to read this one when it was published.
All six books have really good independent stories with DI Zoe Finch as the main character.
But the star of the series is the ongoing investigation into Police corruption, and the link between the corrupt officers and Gang Boss Trevor Hamm
In this story, as Finch prepares to give evidence against a corrupt ex colleague, a burglar makes a grim discovery in an empty house in a one of the posher parts of Birmingham, Sutton Coldfield
When the identity of the body is discovered Finch’s team gets pulled off the investigation
When another body is found, in one of the most deprived areas of Birmingham, Chelmsley Wood, her team are reassigned to that investigation.
Then the dominos start to drop, in lines, towards one central point where the last ones will all crash into each other with a hell of a bang.
Line one, Zoe’s teams investigation into the second murder.
Line two, the court case of the corrupt Officer
Line three, the Professional Standards Departments investigation into just how far the corruption goes.
Line four, the investigation into the death of the man found in the house.
Finally line 5, Zoe Finch’s private life. A single mom of a teenage boy, she lives in a two-up-two-down terrace house in the middle of all the student houses in Shelly Oak. She has a boyfriend she wants to be with, but because of his job in Professional Standards, can’t be, and an alcoholic mother , she doesn’t want to be with, but sometimes can’t avoid.
As the domino lines start hurtling towards the inevitable crash in the centre the book flies by so fast that the 403 pages seems to go in the blink of an eye
The book is brilliant, as are all of the others, but this is one of those series where, to quote Aristotle the “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”
Loved the book, loved the books, loved the series even more.
Pages: 403. Publisher: Ackroyd Publishing
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