March 2024 – nigeladamsbookworm

Deaths Head

Michael Alexander McCarthy

I’m going to start this review with a quote from the book.

“He had been so engrossed in his grandfather’s journal that he read on into the late afternoon without stopping to eat or make himself a drink”

That s exactly what happened to me reading this book. I read, and read and read. This was as close as I’ve gotten to a one sitting read in a long time.

It transformed me back to reading one of my earliest favourite authors, Sven Hassel, and his stories of a band of German Soldiers during WWII.

No glamour, just the horrors of war. The conflict of the regular soldier carrying out orders of delusional, psychopathic, leaders and the gradual numbing of their own moral compasses until they fought as much for their own survival, as they did for the “greater cause”

So who is reading what journal.

David Strachan is a successful business man living in Singapore. He receives notice that his grandfather had passed away in Scotland, and as the next of kin he returns to oversee the clearing of the house and arrange the funeral.

What he finds is that the nice Polish Grandfather he knew was not the person he thought he was.

And Grandad has left a journal relating his early life on the Poland German border, and the fact that as Hitlers war machine was gearing up for war, he had joined the notorious SS.

The journal would have made a great standalone book on its own but wrapped up in the consequences of the effect it will have on Strachan, and what happens after he has finished the journal, this makes for a story which is a cut above.

The story contained in the journal reminded me a lot of the Sven Hassel books but also of the best war book I’ve ever read, The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer. The parallels with this book are striking, especially the traumatic psychological effects the experiences of the young soldiers have on them.

A must read.

Published by Rogue Maille Publishing. Print length 395 pages

Crow Moon. Suzy Ashley

If Hitchcock had directed a film starting Miss Marple this would have been the plot.

Set in a remote Scottish village, around the time of the crow moon, the plot is set in the current day but has at its base ancient folklore.

Martha Strangeways is a reporter who is on extended leave following the death of her young twins in a house fire. She has a teenage son from a previous relationship, and unknown to her he had a dabble in the occult with two friends, one of which is found dead in the woods with a verse from an poem written in his back.

The police carry out a major investigation but Martha, who is carrying out her own unofficial investigation, isn’t sure they are doing enough.

The Police Senior Investigator recognises the benefits of having a renowned journalist, who lives locally, on his side, and agrees to share information with her as long as she is not working as a journalist.

She isn’t, she’s investigating because she’s made the connection that the police don’t want to take seriously, and she’s worried for other teenagers, including her son.

When a girl, another of the three teenagers who dabbled in the occult goes missing Martha starts to make spurious links, and disagrees with the police when they think they know who is to blame.

The setting for this book, and the premise of the story, are dark and could have been written by James Herbert. As I’ve already said the main character of Martha could have come from the pen of Agatha Christie.

That simple formula has produced a cracking story.

As far a debut books go this is one of, if not the best, I’ve read.

Publisher: Orenda Books. Pages: 402.

Audio Book length. 10 hours 18 mins. Narrator Sarah Barron

Every Move You Make C.L Taylor

Five people in a self help group, all of them the victim of a stalker.

At the very start of the book the group loses a member when their stalker murders them on their doorstep.

At the funeral the group are delivered a chilling message. In just over a week one of them will die.

The story is told from the remaining four members of the groups point of view.

They hatch a plan to find out who’s stalker delivered the message, who is the target, but can they trust each other.

With the book being written from the point of view of the four potential victims the concerns, and insecurities soon start to manifest themselves in one of them.

As those concerns appeared on the page it led me to change my hypothesis on who was the intended target, and even start to develop thoughts on if one of them was in fact the puppet master using the others fears to manipulate them.

But why would that be. If all of them are victims of stalking why would one of them go from victim to predator.

This is a cracking story.

The pace of the book is perfectly set. It had me hooked from the beginning and kept me enthralled all the way through.

I can’t remember how many times I changed my hypothesis, up until the point it became obvious, and even then I wasn’t completely convinced there wasn’t going to be a twist.

Publisher Avon. Pages 422. Audio book 10 hours 8 minutes

Jack’s Back and Unlawfully At Large Mark Romain

Books 2 and 3 of the DCI Jack Tyler series set in London at the turn of the 21st century

By setting the books around the millennium Mark Romain has given himself the ideal era for for a great Police Procedural series

Technology is moving forward at a pace, Forensic use of DNA is well advanced and in use.

The use of Mobile Phone technology for tracking criminals is in its infancy, as is the forensic recovery of data from mobiles.

CCTV is starting to cover more of the City but is nowhere near as all-encompassing as it is now, and the quality isn’t great.

The Police have recently been criticised over their handling of the Stephen Lawrence case and the ramifications ripple through officers day to day investigations.

The woke society is not yet in full swing and officers, rightly or wrongly, get away with stereotyping and, in some cases, forming unfounded opinions of people.

All of this allows Romain to write books about what many people class as “proper policing”. Using the skills of a detective, actually carrying out an investigation into a crime, doing the boot work.

But it also allows Tyler and his team to use the incoming technology. CCTV, ANPR, mobile phone tacking, in its earliest of forms.

Jack’s Back.

A sadistic killer is using Jack The Ripper for inspiration.

Killing prostitutes in the same area of Whitechapel as the Victorian killer, using the original Jack as a template, but he is also out for revenge, could this be his Achilles Heal

As good as Romain is in writing from the police point of view it is the insight into the mind of the perpetrator.

The parts written from the point of view of the killer is chilling enough, but there are some peripheral characters that brought goosebumps.

Prostitutes and pimps feature heavily in this story and are written in a way that brings them to life as well as the Police characters.

The violence and deprivation of the seedy side of life is portrayed graphically, but without being gratuitous.

In telling the story Romain takes the reader inside the mind of minor players, and some nasty gangsters. He shows us the vulnerability of the girls working the streets and introduces us to the desperation for drugs that sees most of these women selling themselves to strangers.

Most shockingly it also shows us the dangers they face.

Unlawfully at Large.

When a vicious gangster is helped to escape police custody Tyler’s team is assigned to the team hunting him, whilst Tyler takes a back seat to that teams DCI. That is until an unfortunate case of food poisoning see Tyler take over as the SIO.

The vicious gangster escapes from custody whilst he’s in hospital. Aided by a family member and an assortment of small time gang members, and a drug dependant prostitute the group leave a trail of destruction during their getaway.

The case is personal for Tyler and his team and they stretch the limits to try to arrest the group before the main man can make the ultimate escape across the channel.

Again this is a gritty story that doesn’t hold back on the shock factor. But what really impressed me in this book is the feelings and emotion described within some of the main characters.

The pure desperation and unhinged logic of the escaping gangster. The realisation by some of the group that he has become unhinged and that they are involved in something way over their heads.

The pure blissful ignorance of one of the gang as he seems to want a normal life, but doesn’t really seem to realise just how much trouble, and danger he’s in.

On the Police side Tyler and his team are pushing the hours to a ridiculous rate. What Romain doesn’t shy away from is the fact that bad decisions can be made when somebody is exhausted.

The Series so far.

I can’t praise this series highly enough. Reading is subjective and everyone has their own likes and dislikes. I know this series won’t be for everyone but for me it ticks all of my boxes.

It’s realistic, it’s set in an era when policing was coming to terms with new technology and the investigations were not over reliant on CCTV or DNA.

Each of these books can be read as a standalone but I’d really suggest reading the whole series in order.